


Counting Sheep

by Icandigelvis



Category: Shingeki no Kyojin | Attack on Titan
Genre: Alternate Universe - Angels & Demons, Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, Demons, Devils, Dreams, Dreams and Nightmares, Grisha Yeager's A+ parenting skills, Halloween, Hallucinations, M/M, Mentioned horrible things, real bad things
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-09-19
Updated: 2016-09-19
Packaged: 2018-08-15 08:50:50
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Underage
Chapters: 2
Words: 25,967
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8049955
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Icandigelvis/pseuds/Icandigelvis
Summary: Getting haunted by horrifying nightmares was one thing. When the demon from them started appearing in daytime as well Eren was sure he had gone completely mad. The fangs, the white eyes and the giant, coal-black horns, that was Levi.  And Eren?Eren was  incredibly, royally, helplessly fucked.





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> Yo! New work here, whoop whoop.
> 
> So this is a really old piece I wrote way back, I had pretty much forgotten about it until recently. I've tried cleaning up the most lame grammar and spelling but there might very well be some from when I didn't know how to fucking write. Not that I do now either lol
> 
> Enjoy ♡
> 
>  **Warning:**  
>  I just want to put out there, without spoiling too much, that some situations in this story are quite horrible. I wrote them trying to make myself uncomfortable, so I would deem them to be pretty bad. Then again it's different for everyone.

Crack. Crack.

 

Drip. 

 

Crack. 

 

_May we be safe._

_May we stay in health._

_May he not come for us._

_Amen._

 

Remembering when it all started, that was the trouble. Nonetheless Eren always received the question. 

The messy-haired boy had always gone into episodes where he would have a similar nightmare repeating, over and over, night after night. It would last for 2 days at short or up to two weeks at worst. Winter seemed to be the worst.

He would be terribly tired during the days when these episodes occurred. Spending a lot more time sleeping than he normally would Eren was heavily affected in his every day life. But no matter how many hours he slept Eren would always wake up tired again. His ordinary life and normal, every-day activities got influenced and Eren eventually fell back in school. He would be bothered by sudden headaches and even had a few instances of fainting or simply falling asleep in exhaustion. The doctors diagnosed it as narcolepsy but were not certain why Eren would have such clear in-and outs of these phases. It was as if someone was pressing an on and off switch.  
  
His parents couldn’t afford to take him to specialized doctors, like their local doctor suggested them to nor did Eren get any medicine prescribed. "It will probably grow away as he age," the school nurse had said. Probably to put some ease on Eren's mother and her worrying. 

And then it actually did. At least for a little while. After entering puberty the nightmares got fewer and Eren finally felt free for a couple of years. He was suddenly able to concentrate on the important things in life, like school, video games and boobs. Like most kids did in high school. 

Then two days after Eren's 19th birthday everything went to hell.   
  
Eren's eyes shot open as he jerked awake, gasping as he stared at his blank, white ceiling. The sheets were sticking to his sweaty body, his chest rising with his quick breathing. 'Am I hyperventilating?'

He could hear the familiar sound of his mother's car pulling up in the driveway and he sat up with hurry. Scrambling to his feet Eren ran for the shower. He knew that his problems as a child worried his mother the most, more than it worried Eren at times. He couldn't let her see him like this again.

Trying to wash away the sweat and foggy memories of the nightmares, Eren closed his eyes, cursing.

"Fuck. Fuck. Fuck. Not again," he whispered to himself, his jaw clenching. Staring at his hands he tried to convince himself that it was just a weird coincidence. Everyone had nightmares, for fucks sake. Eren wasn't the only special snowflake. And besides, it had been years since...

This couldn’t be his undiagnosed illness returning. It couldn't be. 

Yet Eren had a feeling he recognized the dream. He somehow knew how it went. 

  
As the hot water ran down his shoulders, dripping from his hair, he was still a little bit out of breath from waking up so suddenly. His mother called to announce her presence and he called back and replied that no, he hadn’t taken in the mail.  
  
Eren’s _"special"_ nightmares had always been similar. Not exact copies but almost like alternate versions of each other. This had been one of them, even if Eren was denying it, he still knew.   
  
It would start, most times, with Eren finding himself on a floating platform in hell. Or that was what Eren used to imagine it was; underneath him was fire and all that surrounded him was red smoke. Similar to the pictures of hell he had seen in books and scary movies. "Everything you dream about are things you have already experienced and seen" he learned early on. So he must have seen this environment somewhere, even though he couldn’t remember anything like it.  
  
The platform would have a set of stairs leading up a minute or two’s walk, where a door of some sort would be. Last night it had been giant, made of iron and had letters of foreign tongue written all over it.  Eren hadn’t put much thought to it, the door may look different but it was never of importance. It didn’t matter how much Eren tried to scream or force his body to stop, to turn around, he always walked up the steps either way. At this part of the dream he never had control of his body.  
  
As he entered through whatever door it was that time he would find himself in some sort of world, certain settings sometimes returning. The closest comparison the boy could come up with was those of video games, there wasn’t unlimited space and there were rules to every new world. As he tried to describe his nightmares to his mother at a younger age she ended up selling his Xbox and forbid him to play any video games at all. It didn’t change anything, Eren’s wild fantasy still came up with different levels in each nightmare.    
  
At rare occasions Eren would meet the maker, or the boss as he also called him, but he rarely did. When he walked through the door in the nightmares he always feared he would see him. Those were the worst ones. Today's dream had been one of those.  
  
The maker was huge. While varying in sizes he would always tower over Eren like a building, intimidating and threatening. This time he was as tall as Eren’s high school building, sitting on his throne of severed animal heads, grinning. He would watch Eren while the teen struggled around the level, running and tripping, barely making it from fiery tree trunks and arrows following his feet. It had been years since he had done this yet it felt like yesterday. The most horrifying thing was that the pain he felt in the dreams always felt real.    
  
The maker had horns; long, black and curled just behind his pointed ears. His eyes were intense, irises almost as white as his glistening, sharp teeth. He had a set of fangs, longer than a human’s and sharper than a dog’s. His nose was small and straight, his mouth usually in a straight line when he wasn’t smirking or scoffing at Eren. He would look bored or mad, watching the human make his way around the place, sometimes making small comments. Eren had tried to talk to him on numerous occasions but learned quickly that he only made it worse for himself by doing so, he would throw a hoard of rabid, horse-sized rats at him or flick his wrist, light bolts shooting down after him. Eren may call him a boss but he never actually interacted with the man, he just sat there and watched.  
  
So Eren tried giving up, just stood still in the dream and hoped to wake up. Whatever hit him, a thousand arrows, a spiked log, it hurt. While the pain was agonizing he was sure it would wake him up, right?

Of course not, this was a nightmare from hell, a curse. So Eren had to continue running, his feet burning like he was running on coal.  
  
Oh, would you look at that, he actually was today.  
  
***-***-***  
  
“Everything’s settled,” his mother sighed, hands on her hips, “are you sure you’re going to be fine? Oh honey,” his mother cried, embracing Eren as he was putting his cutlery in the empty drawer, groaning as she hugged him tightly from the awkward position.  
  
“Mom,” he whined against her shirt and he could hear Mikasa giggle from behind them. Eren gave the 9-year old a look.  
  
“Oh, well, I’m just so happy for you. I’m so proud of you, Eren, this is a big step-“  
  
“I know, I know. Mom, I’ll be fine. And if I ever wonder anything, the tiniest question, I’ll call,” Eren assured her, taking the words right out of her mouth. She smiled and patted his cheek lightly.  
  
“My big boy.”  
  
“Come on,” Eren chuckled, looking back at Mikasa over his mother’s head, ”Hurry now or you’re gonna miss your train,” he said and led his mother into the hallway where his little sister had already put on her boots and hat.  
  
“I’m starting to believe you just want me gone,” his mother scolded him but with a smile on her face.  
  
“It actually seems that way,” Mikasa said around her scarf and Eren groaned again, crossing his arms and leaning against the doorway.  
  
“No, I just don’t want you to miss your god damn train,” he moaned, his mother turning around to give him a raise of an eyebrow for the words.  
  
“Mom, go,” Eren smiled and she sighed again, pulling him in for a goodbye-hug. He hugged back this time, patting her back before turning to Mikasa and giving her one as well, getting pinched hard on his arm out of nowhere.  
  
“Ow! What was that for?!” Eren hissed, letting his sister go.  
  
“What are you talking about?” She sneered and Eren dramatically clenched his fist, pretending to punch her in her stomach. A light laugh left her lips as she grabbed Eren's fist.   
  
“No fighting, come on, Mikasa,” his mother called from the door that she successfully got open, struggling with it for minutes earlier.  
  
“Don’t get into dumb shit,” his sister added in a whisper, his mother not picking up the words. Eren met Mikasa’s eyes; she always surprised people around her with her level of maturity. Eren gave her a short nod; ‘you can trust me’ but his eyes said ‘it’s not your business’. Mikasa seemed to receive both, nodding too and trailing after her mother where she was waiting by the elevator.  
  
“Bye,” Eren waved and waited until his mother and sister had stepped inside, closing the door behind him.  
  
Looking around his dark apartment, Eren’s eyes stuck to the boxes covering the living room floor and sighed. He decided to start looking for a lamp. His mother had bought the one in the kitchen as a gift for his first own apartment. The print was a bit too artsy for him but it created a nice color scheme when it was used.  
  
Eren strode down into his bedroom, hand following the wall as he walked through his short hallway, entering his room where only a bed, nightstand, an old chest and two boxes filled the space.  
  
The previous owners, a young couple, had left their queen sized bed. They had been in need of more space as the woman was expecting triplets and bought a house, if Eren remembered correctly. Nonetheless, Eren got a big bed for free. They had declared it was new, even assured Eren with the recite.   
  
Of course Eren didn’t _mind_ a queen size, a mattress on the floor would’ve probably been his other option. His mother had also bought sheets and a cover for him, something Eren surely wouldn't have spent money on his own on.   
  
Walking past the two boxes he crouched down on the floor by the wall where his speaker was charging in the plug, picking it up. He brought it back with him to the kitchen to grab his phone and then moved into the living room. Eren put on some chill playlist that was recommended on the front page of Spotify and opened the first cardboard box only to close it and scoot it to the side; more kitchen supplies. He could carry it into the kitchen the next time he stood up, he thought and shrugged.  
  
The other box had his vacuum cleaner, his mother's old one and two carpets that Eren rolled up. He carried them both out onto his small balcony and shook them in the cold October air. Eren figured he could place the long, black one in the hallway and the fat shaggy green rug in the living room, in front of the couch he had bought.  
  
A couch was important, Eren nodded to himself, looking at his brand new grey, fancy looking, expensive couch... which he would probably soon regret buying but wouldn’t yet admit to himself. Somehow. It _had_ been pretty expensive...  
  
The teen hadn’t gotten around to get a TV table yet but heck, it was his first night here, and he had time to unwind some.  
  
His old Philips TV got to come along and he found a cheap wall mount at a thrift shop and voilà; looked good enough. Eren had also bargained himself two weird shelves he put up on the wall where he could display his games and movies. Because Eren was the kind of person who bought the movie if he enjoyed it enough. Which meant his collection was mostly of bad comedies and scary horror movies, every lame B-action movie here and there as well.   
  
Giving him something alive to care for Carla had entrusted Eren with a tangerine tree which now stood in the corner of the room, in a blue pot. Eren would probably have to put reminders on his phone in order to remember to water it. He’d only taken care of cacti before (which meant he hadn’t done anything) and he wasn’t sure he was ready for this much responsibilities.    
  
Eren found his floor lamp, probably from IKEA like everything else, and quickly assembled it, praying to all the gods that the bulb would work when he plugged it in. It did and Eren accidentally dropped it to the floor from his excitement. Luckily the bulb didn’t break and Eren carefully, as if walking across broken glass, placed it beside the couch.  
  
He went back to the box but had to take a short break so he could air-guitar with the solo of Blue Oyster Cult’s 'Don’t fear the Reaper' when it played from his speakers.  
  
He really liked this place this far and he had only been here two-three times, counting today. First apartments were supposed to be scary, foreign and apparently took people weeks to get used to but Eren loved this place immediately. Then again a week hadn’t passed yet; he might start feeling home-sick soon. But generally he felt good. He didn’t care about the pissy, old lady opposite his door or the weird emo that lived above him. Eren’s door was also a bit complicated and the doorbell didn’t always work, one heater was a little dangerous and could overheat if you turned it too high. It also took at least half a minute before he got warm water in the bathroom sink or shower, but Eren still didn’t care. He was just relieved to finally live on his own.  
  
One of the main reason he was moving to Essen (apart from getting closer to his job) was actually to give his mother some room. She was constantly caring and worrying for him, his narcolepsy and nightmares and that sort of stuff, Eren couldn’t take it. She didn’t give herself time to do anything but care for her children constantly, even now that Eren was 19 and Mikasa 9. Maybe now she could even go out and meet someone new. Eren, like any teenage boy was awkward (and a bit wary) around the subject that his mother could date. He didn’t remember much about his father, Grisha. He had disappeared before Mikasa was born and it had been some tough times on both Eren and Carla. It was also why Eren had to grow up a bit faster than other kids his age, to help raising his sister.  
  
But Eren knew Carla felt alone and he wished she would find someone, he knew he would be overprotective and expect no one but the best kind of person, but he still hoped she’d focus on herself for once. Maybe that would happen now that Eren put a little space between them. Carla was still young, only 18 herself when she had Eren, 37 now, soon 38.  
  
If Eren wanted to visit them it was a close drive back to his home town Heiden or only 40 minutes by train. A lot of his friends studied in Essen and Eren would now get closer to them as well. He wasn’t going to study yet himself because, quite frankly, he had no fucking idea what to study. Plus his grades were probably too shitty for anything good either way. So Eren would first have to actually make up his mind and secondly have to apply and study at Voksenopplaeing to get his grades up before he could get anywhere.  
  
At the moment he spent his time working, saving up for a possible road trip through Europe. It was him and Jean who had come up with the idea but Eren wasn’t sure they were actually prepared to be stuck together in a small car for such a long time.  
  
Eren’s job consisted of working for a company which supplied organisations with fairs, conferences and congresses in Essen and Düsseldorf, even Münster and Köln. Eren made a good amount of money at this job accompanied with his weird YouTube-career where he reviewed cameras and video-making equipment. His uncle owned a camera store in Essen and Eren could receive early access to products and in conclusion; he made a good living for himself with two jobs at only 19.  
  
The music was suddenly paused mid-song and Eren turned around to look at his phone, attached on his speaker as his screen lit up. Eren stumbled up from the floor where he was sorting through gloves and bags and went up to his phone, his feet quiet against the floor as his display showed him a contact, with simply the emoji of the horse, was calling.  
  
“Yo,” Eren replied as he picked up his phone, answering and standing to rest a hand on his hip, looking over the mess on the floor in front of him.  
  
“’Yo’? What the fuck are you? An anime character?” Jean replied and Eren made a fake laugh, probably overdoing it a little as Jean started snickering.  
  
“Well, yo, Eren. What are you doing?” Jean asked while Eren bit his thumb, walking over to pick up the pillows he had thrown towards the couch and missed, placing them on top of it.  
  
“Still unpacking,” he said and tried to listen to the sounds in the background as Jean seemed to be outside with some friends, Eren falling down onto his couch. Was that Connie's voice?  
  
“Brought all your dolls and stuffed animals with you?”  
  
“No, yeah I actually bought this stuffed bunny called Greg isn’t that so weird-“ Eren said as he put his phone on speaker and heard Jean groan.  
  
“So fucking funny Eren. Making fun of my dead bunny all the time is probably going to get you to hell,” Jean stated as Eren chuckled, silencing as Jean didn’t say anything.  
   
“Oi, Jean, did you actually get sad-“  
  
“Can I come over later? I’ve got the day off tomorrow?”  
  
Eren looked over his messy floor again.  
  
“Sure,” he said after a moment of thinking. He could unpack until Jean got here, it wasn’t like he was in a hurry either way, “which time?”  
  
“We’re going to the movies so it’ll be like two hours plus… 30 minutes?” Jean said.  
  
“And you didn’t invite me?” Eren pretended to sound hurt. In reality he actually felt a bit left out, or at least until Jean replied.  
  
“I’m with Reiner, Bertholdt and Connie” he said, Eren only needing to hear the first name but knew Jean couldn’t just name one of them as they were probably overhearing this phone call.  
  
“Okay, I’ll see you later but if you smell you’re not getting inside, I’m serious, Jean,” Eren said.  
  
“Yeah, yeah, yeah,” Jean said and replied to something someone asked in the background, then he was back.  
  
“I’m going now but I’ll see you later, Jaeger,” Jean said and Eren rolled his eyes.  
  
“See you, Kirschtein,” he replied, also using his last name which made Jean chuckle before he hung up, Connie yelling something along with ‘kiss, bye honey’ over the phone like the mature boy he was.  
  
Connie was only 17 but hung around Jean and Reiner either way, the buff, muscular blonde 25 years old. Eren didn’t exactly mind Reiner as a person, it was his hobby of getting high that wasn’t Eren’s cup of tea. Bertholdt, Reiner’s childhood friend, had been in and out of rehab as his body clearly didn’t handle the drugs Reiner got them both into. Their entire relationship just seemed fucked up to Eren.  
  
Eren had taken some shrooms with them once and it had fucked him up seriously. Added to his medication, he was stuck in an endless, typical nightmare level but this time awake. He ended up in the hospital after breaking his own wrist trying to climb up a tree and promised his mother, the doctor, his nurse and himself to never do it again. Eren didn’t name Reiner nor Jean to the police but now that he thought about it, maybe it would have done some good. The blonde was basically supplying kids with drugs. It sure as hell would’ve helped both Connie and Bertholdt.  
  
But then again, if Eren had snitched, maybe he wouldn’t have Jean as a friend anymore.  
  
Eren yawned and decided to continue with another box instead, tired of the big nest of cables and cords in the previous one. His fished up his earth globe-lamp and wondered if it would fit in the living room or bedroom. Eren had a weird, old chest of drawers in his bedroom where it could probably look good on. Picking it up and carrying it over to his room Eren plugged it into the wall, turned it on and was happy with the results.  
  
After spending a little more than an hour unpacking Eren said “I’m done” when he reached papers, folders and boring stuff and left to get a shower instead, spending a good half an hour basking in the warm water.  
  
Eren was microwaving a hot pocket when someone knocked on his door. Looking at the clock he thought it was a tad early. He hoped it was Jean instead of a neighbour welcoming him as he was only dressed in his black harem pants and his Moomin t-shirt.  
  
His eyes travelled up to the small peek hole on his door and bent over to close one eye, looking through it and meeting only a middle finger. Eren laughed and unlocked the door, grinning at Jean.  
  
“Fuck you, yourself. What if I hadn’t looked through the peek hole, then that would’ve been awkward for you, right?” he said and held the door open for the other.   
  
“But see, I know you, Eren, and I knew you would look,” Jean replied and proudly smirked, kicking off his shoes, closing the door behind him.  
  
“I have a door bell,” Eren stared at him, arms crossed as he leaned against the doorframe to the kitchen.  
  
“I rang but nothing happened.”  
  
“Oh yeah, it’s broken,” Eren remembered, scoffing at himself as Jean just rolled his eyes.  
  
He straightened up as he got his shoes off and shrugged out of his jacket, hanging in on the hanger, looking around. Jean had been here the first time Eren looked at the place and it had been both hilarious and embarrassing as the retailer had assumed them to be a young couple, looking for a flat together.  
  
“And you jerk it out,” Jean sung with the music and followed Eren into the kitchen, the brown-haired boy opening the small door to his microwave, taking out the plate. Eren sighed as he could see the thing was still frozen in the middle and pressed a finger against it, groaning and putting it back in. A hand sneaked to his back, caressing its way down to cup his ass as Eren pressed in another minute. He attempted to turn around so he could raise an eyebrow at Jean but a grip on his hips didn’t let him. Jean pressed himself against Eren’s back, grinding.  
  
“Someone’s horny,” Eren said as Jean placed his mouth over Eren’s neck, breathing and mouthing against his tan skin.  
  
“I want to fuck you,” he groaned behind him, using his low voice and Eren laughed at his friend for trying so hard.  
  
“Not gonna happen,” Eren sang and Jean grunted behind him, pushing his already hard bulge against Eren. Up, down, up, down, probably thinking he could persuade him otherwise.  
  
Eren’s fingers travelled over to Jean’s head, gripping his hair and bringing him over his shoulder for an open-mouthed kiss. Jean tasted of cola and popcorn and Eren probably tasted of red bull as he had finished one earlier. Jean replied with his tongue eagerly, most likely still thinking he could convince Eren to spread his ass for him.  
  
Not today.  
  
“Fuck,” Jean groaned as Eren demanded room to turn around and grabbed Jean’s dick as good as he could while the other was still wearing tight jeans. Jean’s hands slipped down to Eren’s behind again and he moved his big hands over Eren’s cheeks in a way that made the slightly shorter male groan into the kiss.  
  
Shit. Eren forgot. Jean really knew what he was doing.  
  
The microwave’s beeping interrupted them and Eren finished the kiss with a humorous peck on Jean’s cheek since his mouth was still open, gasping, eyes clouded with lust staring into Eren’s green ones. Eren pushed Jean's hands off him and turned to the microwave, ignoring Jean’s loud sigh.  
  
“You’re not fucking Sasha, you can eat that later,” Jean’s hands were on Eren’s ass again as if they were magnets and Eren laughed at the other’s words.  
  
“No, I’m not fucking Sasha, I’m fucking you,” he replied and Jean faked a laugh before Eren could even finish the sentence, pressing his chest against Eren’s back.  
  
“Eren, I swear to god-“  
  
“What, you don’t want me to suck you after I’ve had my meal?” Eren asked, sticking a finger in his mouth to sensually suck on it while he walked to fetch a knife and fork, Jean’s hands dropping from his ass. Their flirting was always half serious and half sexy. It was safe that way, in case it got too awkward or intense, they could always joke it off.  
  
“You’ll blow me?” Jean asked, sounding surprised and Eren licked his lips as he stared at the food.  
  
“If you eat me out,” Eren replied and he had to turn to watch Jean’s reaction, meeting his eyes.  
  
“Sure,” Jean simply shrugged after just a moment of thinking, looking like he was talking about the weather or school. His pants, however, told Eren otherwise.  
  
Eren looked back at his food, then Jean, then the food again and shrugged, walking towards the bedroom with Jean following close behind, his food rejected on the counter.  
  
“You showered, right?” Jean asked in an almost whisper and Eren broke into a loud laughter, turning and pushing his friend.  
  
“What the fuck, Jean. Of course I fucking showered, ew,” he laughed and Jean cracked up himself, pressing Eren against the wall in return, kissing him.  
  
“Stop it,” he replied between kisses and Eren wasn’t sure what he was talking about but dropped all thoughts whatsoever as Jean’s hands moved under his thighs, pushing for Eren to jump up. The brown-haired did as told and locked his ankles behind Jean’s back, moaning out loudly as Jean started grinding his hips again, tongue rolling against Eren’s.

"Man, you're like a dog today," Eren absently mumbled between tongues and teeth.  
  
After a minute or something had passed, Jean carried him only the three metres or so over to the bed where he put Eren down on it and hovered over him, pressing his hips down again.  
  
“You’re not going to fuck me, Jean,” Eren chuckled after breaking the kiss to breathe, staring at his window which had the view of an office building across. Most rooms looked to be dark but Eren pushed Jean off after a moment, annoyed.  
  
“What? I’m not going to if you don’t-“ Jean questioned him, holding up his hands.  
  
“I know, Jean.  I just want the blinds down,” Eren assured him and Jean quieted, looking at the window.  
  
“And don’t you fucking make a comment about that time at school-,” Eren threatened, a smirk on Jean’s face, “-or for me being into voyeurism or something. Shut up,” Eren said, pointing at Jean who had opened his mouth, turning towards the bed again after turning the blinds.  
  
Jean held up his hands in surrender and pushed the thick, blue covers off Eren’s bed, Eren almost falling to the floor with them. Underneath was Eren’s new white covers. He hadn’t even brought his Pooh Bear sheets with him, even though it was hard to part from them.  
  
“Under the sheets or above, princess?” Jean asked as he held the covers, looking at Eren.  
  
“Under,” Eren ignored the fact that Jean was being ironic, but crawled down underneath either way. Eren spread his arms and legs like a starfish, smiling at Jean, the taller giving him a weird look.  
  
“What the fuck are you doing?” he asked, placing his knees outside Eren’s thighs, sitting on his crotch, immediately grinding down, back and forth, his body enthusiastically riding him while his face was blank like he was reading a newspaper. In all honesty, he looked sexy like that. Jean had a nice face, maybe a bit long. His eyebrows hooded his eyes in a very sexy way, not that Eren would ever tell him. He settled for grabbing his neck instead, pulling him down for another kiss.  
  
“Eren,” Jean moaned after a minute, sitting back up and unbuckling his belt, one of the things that Eren found extremely sexy; belts. Not as an instrument in bdsm, tying someone up or using it as a whip. It was the movement of removing a belt while hovering over him, like this, that made Eren buck his hips upwards against Jean.  
  
“You sure you don’t want me to-?”  
  
“Wow, you are persistent today, Jean,” Eren said. Jean gave him a small smile, an apology and moved to unbutton his pants. He threw off his shirt at first, Eren sneaking his hands up to roam his chest. He sat up and eager lips attached against Jean’s left nipple, flicking his tongue against it and sucking.  
  
“You know,” Eren started, ”last time I was in serious pain for two days because you grab my hips so hard,” Eren replied and gave the other nipple some attention. It was the one with the piercing that Eren loved to play with in his mouth.   
  
“I’m sorry, Eren,” Jean apologized, his face guilty.  
  
“Maybe next time you calm your caveman instincts,” Eren said and Jean chuckled against his neck as he sucked on the skin, lightly biting but not enough to give Eren a hickey he wouldn’t be able to cover or explain at work.  
  
“Up we go,” Jean said as he rolled over when Eren had removed his clothes, lastly his socks as he hated wearing them to bed or during sex.  
  
He rolled over at Jean’s command and was positioned on all fours, leaning over the other, giving him a last kiss before turning to kneel the opposite direction. Jean scooting down the bed so Eren could fit his legs at the top, Eren grabbing Jean’s cock to give it a few lazy jerks. 69ing, it was a classic.   
  
“Part your legs more,” Jean said and Eren obliged and shut up even though he had a thousand jokes he could reply with, closing his eyes as he leaned over Jean, getting a new grip of his cock.  
  
Jean was amazing at tossing salad, Eren would always lose any argument if Jean brought it up at last. Eren would shrug and agree and that would end their fight. Of course Jean never brought it up whenever they were around people, cause they weren’t exactly boyfriends.  
  
“F-fuck,” Eren breathed as he had to lean against Jean’s thigh, holding his friend’s dick and pumping it as Jean did his magic, twisting his tongue and parting Eren’s cheeks with his hands, eyes closed as he focused on his work. Jean realized Eren was getting closer to the finish line as he started neglecting Jean’s cock as he had a tendency to do when he was about to cum, Jean grabbed Eren’s balls with one hand, gently massaging them. Eren let out a pathetic whine and shut his eyes closed again, distracting himself with Jean’s cock, stuffing his throat full of it and groaning around the thick shaft, making Jean in turn moan, moving a hand to finally touch Eren’s dick. He gave it a few rubs, enough to finally send Eren over the edge as he pushed his tongue in deep, the brown haired sitting down fully on Jean’s face, moaning loudly.  
  
He always made sure he didn’t feel a pinch or push from Jean, his way of letting Eren knew he was crushing him and literally suffocating him. With his ass. It didn’t come and after Eren's orgasm passed he carefully rolled to the side, head leaning against Jean’s thigh, hand still on the other’s neglected shaft. Eren’s eyes met Jean’s and both were out of breath as they stared at each other, both boys with heavily lidded eyes.  
  
Eren collected himself after a minute and pushed for Jean to lie on his side as he got a tight grip on his base, licking his cock up and down like a popsicle. Jean moaned just the right moan and Eren continued before taking the head into his mouth, sucking. He worked his throat more open, even though he’d already spent minutes on the task during their 69. Eren tilted his head back and shoved Jean’s cock back further, testing a few times before opening his eyes and meeting Jean’s, nodding. The other boy, still panting, grabbed Eren’s hair in a tight fist and the other slid to Eren’s jaw to hold him in place as he started fucking his throat.  
  
It was one of Jean’s fetishes, Eren had learned, and he felt like he should reward Jean tonight in return for doing such a great job on Eren.  
  
Throat-fucking wasn’t exactly enjoyable for the one being the throat that evening, but Eren concentrated on regular breathing between thrusts as Jean’s cock pressed deeper with each movement.  
  
It didn’t take long for him to orgasm and though Eren was starting to get tired, his throat already hurting, he decided to be nice and not push Jean away when he groaned his warning. Instead Eren only stopped Jean’s dick with his tongue and a hand, sucking until he was shooting into his mouth, Eren swallowing it all.  
  
Hot pockets really tasted better.  
  
***-***-***  
  
“Yo,” Jean said in a weird, flamboyant voice when Eren opened his eyes the next morning, being met with a smirking Jean who was leaning on his elbow, looking down at Eren. The room was light and sunshine was seeping through the cracks of the blinds that Eren apparently hadn’t turned fully the night before.  
  
Eren pushed at Jean’s face with a hand and closed his eyes again, snuggling down into the sheets, Jean laughing.  
  
He had slept well, like he usually did when Jean was there to cuddle him in his sleep. Oh, yeah, Jean was a cuddler alright. Something the other would never admit and unfortunately Eren couldn’t tease him about it in public as their ‘sex buddies relationship’ was a secret from their friends. Especially as Marco was a part of their friends and Jean was still head over heels for the air head. Sasha was also among their friends and Eren had made a bet with her, while drunk, that he would never bat for the other team, something that he had done many times already, and that he would pay up $100 if he ever did. Eren wasn’t one to lie but it wasn’t like Sasha actually had asked about it after that. If she actually, somehow found out Eren liked the capital D he would pay! He wasn’t completely an asshole who didn’t hold his promises. Only kind of.  
  
“Didn’t you have work today?” Eren asked, eyes still shut, the only part of him that wasn’t hiding under the white, fluffy sheets. When Jean didn’t answer Eren tiredly opened his eyes to look at his friend who indeed was eyeing him back. Jean really looked good like this, chest toned and hair messy, the sun behind him casting interesting shadows.  
  
“I told you yesterday I didn’t. Too horny to remember it?” Jean asked, yawning the last part. Finally he moved his elbow and lied back down in the sheets, tugging a bit on it and moving closer to Eren.  
  
“No I remember, sorry,” Eren sleepily said against the sheets, pushing them out of the way to move closer to Jean as well. He placed his mouth over his neck and stayed there for a while, casually licking and sucking, Jean mumbling the lyrics to some song Eren didn’t recognize.  
  
Suddenly Jean’s chest moved as he chuckled at something, Eren leaning back to look up and raise an eyebrow.  
  
“You forgot your fucking hot pocket,” Jean said and Eren rolled his eyes, leaning back down to continued his task but he frowned when he saw the mark was getting a bit too red already.  
  
“Don’t worry, the guys already think I’m fucking Mina,” Jean said and Eren leaned back once against to rest his face on his pillow, looking at Jean.  
  
“Really?”  
  
“Yeah, it started after the party, you know. Now she’s been all awkward while she’s around me,” he groaned and Eren chuckled, feeling bad for his friend.  
  
“I mean she’s nice and all, like really, but I don’t even think about her? Or in that way at least. When I look at her I think of the young her when she ate that worm, you know? It’s so troublesome I just wish Connie and Sasha would shut up for once. Like, what am I even doing hanging with those kids? We’re such a mix of friends- Eren, really?!” Jean stopped and stared down into Eren’s eyes, the brown haired having rolled them over and started humping Jean’s leg like a bunny.  
  
“You’re so good at talking dirty,” Eren breathed while laughing, continuing to move against him, settling between his legs to rub against Jean’s cock that certainly wasn’t as ignorant as Jean’s face, waking up now.  
  
“You’re horny? You usually never wanna do anything in the morning,” Jean said tiredly and in that deep voice that always turned Eren on.  
  
“No nightmares,” Eren simply said, biting at Jean’s jaw.  
  
“Ah, good,” Jean said and met Eren’s lips, both being put together enough for teenage boys to go brush their teeth the night before after their so called activities.  
  
“F-fuck, I want you to fuck me,” Eren groaned into Jean’s mouth when Jean moved his hands over Eren’s shoulders to his ass, holding them in place as he grinded up against Eren’s cock, rubbing it against his stomach as Eren’s member was squeezed between their bodies.  
  
Jean got out a “Really?”, tongue still deep in Eren’s mouth and the other giggled into the kiss, struggling to crawl over Jean’s legs without kneeing his crotch, settling to move his ass against him instead. With some help from Eren’s hand he trapped Jean’s cock between his ass cheeks and moved up and down, riding Jean without penetration.  
  
“See? You keep making horse jokes but you’re the one constantly a slut for riding my cock,” Jean laughed as Eren sat up, both hands on Jean’s chest as he focused on moving his behind. Jean had slid his arms behind his head as he lied back to enjoy the show, Eren arching his body, leaving the tip of his tongue outside his slightly opened mouth, unknowingly making himself look incredibly seductive.  
  
“You’re pretty, Jaeger, but don’t overdo it,” Jean joked and Eren rolled his eyes but laughed nonetheless.  
  
Eren continued for a few minutes before he had enough, falling face first into the bed beside Jean, moaning for him to get the lube. Jean was already up and running towards the bathroom.  
  
“Eren, where the fuck is the lube? You only unpacked your fucking toothbrush and toothpaste!” Jean yelled from the hallway and Eren groaned into the bed, pumping himself against the sheets.  
  
“Fuck, I have no idea. In one of the hundreds of boxes,” he groaned as a reply and Eren listened to Jean yelling in frustration.  
  
“Fuck it, we’re using the hot pocket,” he heard Jean mumble which brought Eren from his daze, sitting up and glaring at Jean when he appeared in the doorway, plate in hand, looking like he was ready to perform cpr.  
  
“Get that damn thing away from me!” Eren yelled to Jean’s stupid face.  
  
***-***-***  
  
“Oh? You sure do seem slower than usual,” a voice laughed low over Eren and he brushed the sweat from his forehead with the backside of his right hand, looking around for the running hogs that had chased him earlier. He didn’t even have time to look up at the man in his throne so many obstacles were hitting him tonight. Even the red fog around him looked much darker than usual.   
  
Eren sprinted forwards when he heard the grunting behind him, getting too much speed in the turn and almost falling down into the fire. He couldn’t actually remember ever falling into the flames but the thought that it might have been too traumatic to even remember the pain was what made him gulp when he looked down at the fire.   
  
Jumping over the gap and heading uphill, grabbing onto the broken wood, splinters finding themselves digging into his hands, Eren collected himself at the top before jogging towards the part where he would have to crawl. He hated this part because he was always in fear that the colossal block would suddenly drop from its levitating gravity and crush him.  
  
Suddenly he was falling and the next second Eren’s alarm rang, telling him it was time to get ready for work. Actually the alarm said ‘breakfast or fucking not’ and Eren groaned, unlocking his phone and taking a few deep breaths. At least one good thing came from these fucking nightmares, since he woke up so sweaty each time he always showered every morning.  
  
He entered his kitchen looking at the flattened cardboard boxes that were standing against the hallway wall. Right, he needed to get rid of those.  
  
Eren had been living in his current apartment for almost half a month now and things were going well, his neighbors had barely shown their faces and the ones who had were nice, apart from the lady opposite of course.  
  
There was an older man on the bottom floor who insisted he showed him his flower collection and Eren was really impressed when he entered the old man’s living room, looking at the walls which were completely coated by frames of pressed flowers, small and cursive writing underneath probably stating the name in Latin or something. It was impressive, yes, but boring after 20 seconds.   
  
He fished out a bowl from the cabinet, staring at the empty space it left as it was his last one. He only had four bowls which meant the other three were in the dishwasher. The machine was apparently a bit twitchy, according to the homeowner and he would have to guard it or at least be home when he used it, ready to press the STOP button if water started leaking. So he didn’t have time to turn it on now.  
  
Eren stuffed his mouth full of the granola his mother had gotten him used to as a child and poured more milk into the bowl, staring out his window. The view was another office building which was interesting to observe, surely, but after only half a month he was already tired of watching the bald man scratch his balls between typing on his laptop every now and then. There was a woman with crazy red hair above him but she was rarely in her room.  
  
The 19 year old didn’t know what he had expected from the office building but it might be something along the lines of what porn had taught him; that porn happened everywhere. However no office workers had bent over any paper-stacked desks and the only bending over happening in a close radius (that Eren knew of) was himself when Jean showed up practically neighing in anticipation and frustration.  
  
After laughing at his own jokes, as lame as Eren was, he was off to work. He found himself spending the majority of his time with Ymir and Christa, smiling at visitors and scanning their cards, handing out goodie bags and explaining where the toilets were located about a 1000 times.  
  
Eren enjoyed his job. He hadn’t had much experience before this and the reason he had gotten it in the first place was because of his language knowledge. Eren was naturally social and good at talking but didn’t have previous work practice apart from working for a week with Marco at that pizzeria in 6:th grade. But he was fluent in English, German and had a very broad Turkish vocabulary and spoke some bits of Chinese. His father had also told him some sign language, the Chinese sign language at that, but he’d forgotten mostly. He just put it on his CV because it made him look educated. Everything counts, right?  
  
This week it was a French fair however and Eren had to stick to English, watching as Ymir took care of snail-eaters who didn’t speak English. Ugh, he was so culturally insensitive.  
  
When he finished up towards the evening, most people dropping out and singing out, Eren was allowed to leave together with his two female friends.  
  
“Eren, we’re going to the new sushi place tonight, you wanna come?” Christa asked as they were headed towards their lockers where they put their coats and bags. It was an unisex dressing room as most people already came dressed and left in their own clothes, the long sleeved polo’s being the only parts of their clothes they didn’t own themselves.  
  
Eren removed his key strap and tag and threw it into his bag, moving into his winter jacket.  
  
“Eh, thanks but I’m planning for pizza tonight,” he lied as he just didn’t want to hang with them. Christa was nice and all but the way Ymir shot daggers at Eren whenever he was even talking to the blonde haired girl made him feel uneasy.  
  
“Oh, okay. Well, we’ll see you tomorrow then?” She asked, smiling up at him. She was so short, Eren thought, hands in his giant pockets, his backpack on his shoulders.  
  
“I’m actually free tomorrow but I work Friday from 7 to 7,” he said, smiling as she told him she had the same hours.  
  
“See you,” Ymir said as Eren was leaving, pressing his other card in his phone case to the key card holder, unlocking and pushing the doors open and walking out into the early autumn.  
  
Eren untangled his earphones from the ball of yarn mess it was in, finishing after a minute of walking. He stopped outside the big SAFEWAY and decided to go inside, he could actually get himself a frozen pizza for today.  
  
The supermarket itself was a huge one and Eren found himself grabbing a basket as he entered, walking through the aisles of vegetables. There was a picture of a stew sort of dish and Eren’s mouth watered as it reminded him of his mother’s vegetable soup she used to make.  
  
He looked at the turnips in front of him and then back up to the picture again. Eren moved a bit to the side as he brought up his phone to google ‘simple vegetable soup with turnip’ and was granted with many results. He found one which seemed simple enough. If the soup was good enough he could eat it tomorrow as well and have to skip frozen food at least for one day. Eren was good at cooking but not as good as Jean. Compared to Armin however, he was a star chef. Armin’s food was always shit. The guy’s cookies and cakes however, were great, however that science added up.  
  
With one turnip, two carrots and a leek in his cart Eren continued through the supermarket, picking up whatever the list told him to get. He had two things already at home; water and salt.  
  
A bag of potatoes, a package of vegetable broth cubes and two onions later Eren stood by the counter. He also picked up a bottle of cola and one jug of milk, organic because Eren was nice to cows like that.  
  
“Hello,” the girl behind the counter smiled and Eren hello’d back, still putting his things on the counter for her to scan. He felt really grown up with his many vegetables, accidentally dropping the bag of carrots. The cashier was really pretty, Eren thought as he watched her do her job and search for the code for turnips in her folder because who fucking bought turnips.  
  
Her name tag said Petra and Eren shone up when he read she spoke German according to the small flag under her name next to English, Indian, Spanish and… Icelandic?  
  
“Du kennst bestimmt viele sprachen,” Eren smiled as he brought up his phone to get his card to pay.  
  
“Oh, no sorry. I only speak English and some Spanish, this isn’t actually my card,” she said and seemed to be really embarrassed about it. “I mean, Petra is my name but the frame thing isn’t mine, sorry, you speak English right?” She asked, already looking around as if to find someone who spoke German and Eren quickly spoke, assuring her he knew English.  
  
“Oh, okay… cash or card?” She smiled sheepishly as Eren had already put in his card, then she ‘oh’d at her screen and Eren gave her an awkward smile.  
  
It felt like a frying pan fell onto his head.  
  
He was so smooth.  
  
***-***-***  
  
Eren rolled up the sleeves of his grey, cozy hoodie that he was wearing, feeling a bit cold as he had forgotten to put the heaters on. Eren had prepared a big pot of water, added “a pinch of salt” however much that was, Eren just threw some in there and cleaned his vegetables. The carrots he cut into pieces with the deathly sharp knife he also bought from IKEA. It was amazingly sharp; cut them up like butter compared to the one he used to struggle with at his mom’s place.  
  
The turnip turned out to be a challenge however as it rolled from the cutting board and Eren caught it before it fell onto the floor.  
  
“Stay fucking still,” he mumbled as he positioned the knife over the hard stone-like vegetable.  
  
And his hand slipped.  
  
Eren stared in surprise as the cutting board was suddenly filled with a red liquid, flowing and dripping onto the floor. Oh no, what was this? He had to clean it up, he absently thought as his eyelids began to drop.  
  
What was going on?  
  
Eren couldn’t hear anything, it had all gone silent and a white mist was spreading across his vision, he could feel his heart beating loudly and a stinging sensation crawling up his arm.  
  
What was going on.  
  
***-***-***  
  
Another hard kick hit his stomach and Eren moved, the stinging in his arm still there, but he couldn’t open his eyes. He was too tired. What was happening, couldn’t they just let him sleep?  
  
“Oi, fuckface,” someone called above him and Eren just chuckled at the weak words. He felt something warm wrap around his neck and squeeze, making Eren try to push the warmth away.  
  
Another kick, now aimed at his back, made him cough, open his eyes and gaze at whatever was in front of him, too tired to move his body.  
  
Eren stared out at the red flames, the end of a dark platform in front of him.  
  
Oh.  
  
“You done now?” The voice said and Eren recognized it, blinking as that was the only motion he had the energy to do. He noticed he wasn’t breathing, that he didn’t need to because he somehow seemed to live either way. Or was he alive?  
  
“Stop being a baby, do you want to live or not?” A pair of black boots stepped into Eren’s view and he tried to look up the legs but his head wasn’t moving. The person was wearing dark pants as well, as of what Eren could see. But he recognized those boots clearly, he had seen them many times.  
  
It was the maker.  
  
Eren could see the kick coming before he even raised his foot and Eren shut his eyes before the boot smacked into his face, moving his body slightly backwards with the movement.  
  
“Okay, how about this, you fucking child. Blink twice if you want to live and once if you want to die,” The voice said and Eren opened his eyes again, a burning hang gripping his jaw and tilting his head so Eren could look him in the eyes.  
  
It was his maker, as captivating as he always looked, glaring down at Eren. His eyes weren’t their usual silver however and Eren wanted to ask why that was, why they were red. He also wanted to ask why the maker’s horns were at least twice their usual size now.  
  
Eren blinked twice as clearly as he could, of course he wanted to live. He tried to collect himself before getting enough energy to open his mouth, hissing out a weak;  
  
“I want t-to live,” and it was enough for his maker apparently.  
  
Shit.  
  
Maybe it had been a trick question and he was now sent to hell or something.  
  
“Then it’s settled. Pleasure to make business with you, Eren Jaeger.”  
  
***-***-***  
  
A deep gasp filled the room, the only sound heard when Eren came back to reality. He immediately started coughing as his throat was completely dry, trying to suck in air at the same time, his lungs feeling like they were going to explode.  
  
Eren’s hands were holding onto his kitchen counter as it was his last life line and he pushed himself towards the faucet, grabbing a random glass from the counter to fill with water and throw it back into his throat, coughing as he breathed in water in turn. Eren looked with blurry, teary eyes at his arms and hands, he didn’t see any cuts. He dropped the glass onto the desk again, still struggling to breathe normally and checked his arms further, his fingers shaking violently.   
  
There was nothing. No trace of his stupid accident.

Had there even been an accident?  
  
Eren let out a weak whine as he backed into his fridge, hitting it with his back and sliding down to the floor. He felt some magnets and post cards fall to the floor with him. He hoped they didn’t break. Especially the little chef one from Marco.  
  
Eren was too tired to move and stared into the white paint of the cupboard under the kitchen counter, calming down enough after a minute to breathe normally again. His fingers were still trembling, Eren hiding his hands against his sides to still them. He felt incredibly cold, an eerie feeling crawling over his back. Something felt wrong in his throat, his heart was pounding and his eyes blinking shut.   
  
“Fuck,” he whispered, trying his voice as he crawled into himself, pulling his knees closer to his chest and hiding his face in his arms, the soft fabric of his hoodie drying his tears.  
  
“Get yourself together,” he said after another minute, hearing the boiling of the water starting to get louder. He didn’t want it to boil over only for Eren to fucking burn himself instead of slitting his entire arm open. Eren was still in too much of shock to be able to cook any fucking soup today, probably not enough sane to microwave anything. On weak legs he stood up, grabbing the small knob to turn his stove off. He grabbed the lid to remove it, staring at his hand.   
  
He looked towards the hallway, everything looked as normal as before. Just like time had been rewinded. Eren turned his head towards the table and window and had a very delayed reaction to what was sitting on his dinner table, smiling at him.

  
Silence.

 

The lid fell to the floor with a loud clang.

 

  
“No, please go on,” the man said and Eren finally moved. Yelled an ugly set of curse words, he threw himself backwards, almost falling on his bum.  
  
“Who are you?!” He yelled and quickly grabbed the knife from the desk, holding it in both his hands, his eyes scanning up and down the man. He had pale skin, looking almost a bit dead, dark circles under his eyes and a military undercut, hair falling into his eyes. His eyes themselves were intimidating, almost a light grey and looked tired, bored and slightly annoyed with Eren. His arms were resting on his knees where he was crouching on Eren’s table, his black, leather boots probably leaving marks on the white cloth.  
  
There was something so familiar about the man but Eren visibly shook his head at the thought.  
  
“You probably shouldn’t play around with that too much, as clumsy as you are,” he said and stood up onto the table fully, his head almost touching the ceiling.  
  
“W-who are you?!” Eren tried again, trying to appear bigger than he was in front of the man who jumped down from the table with his hands still in his pockets, balance like a cat and he… was actually shorter than Eren, walking up to him. His eyes were watching Eren like a wild animal, a predator, but his body seemed relaxed, his hands still in his pockets.  
  
“You know who I am,” he said and Eren gulped. His brain had already put memories and pictures in his head together but he didn’t want to believe it. Or more like, Eren didn’t want to believe that he had actually gone this mad.  
  
Yet he could see the man in front of him, just like he was there, in real life, but he knew it would be impossible.  
  
“Stop fucking quivering like a scared little bunny, I’m hungry. Give me something,” he said, moving forwards again and this time his hand grabbed the knife by the blade and Eren gasped, looking down at him. The man gave him a small smirk as he yanked it from Eren’s hands, placing it on the counter again, no cuts on his hand which should have been bleeding seriously by now.  
  
Eren gulped and stared at him, mouth hanging open.  
  
“W-what?” He asked, staring at the maker as he walked over to sit down on the small counter next to the fridge, eyes on Eren as his feet were now dangling in the air.  
  
“I’m not repeating myself, shit-face,” he said and continued to glare at Eren.  
  
“I-… uh,” Eren started and took a look at his desk. Should he call the cops? Technically the guy was an intruder but Eren was a bit worried the cops would show up and instead drag Eren to the mental hospital for seeing people that weren’t real all the while the maker sat in the car, laughing at Eren.  
  
“What… what are you doing here?” Eren finally asked, putting his foot down. He wasn’t going to fucking cook for the guy without some explaining. If this was a dream it was a first time it acted out like this. And if it was reality... Hell, he should beat him up, he was the reason Eren had nightmares which in turn fucked up his life completely. However Eren wasn’t stupid not to realize that this guy, the maker was probably really strong, real or not.  
  
“Finally catching up to reality, are we? I’m here because I’m eating your soul. It tastes delicious by the way,” he smiles, like he was complimenting the chef during a good dinner. Or giving a small tip at the local pizzeria in Eren’s case.  
  
“You’re eating my soul? Sure doesn’t feel like it,” Eren replies and the man shrugged, throwing one leg over the other and leaning back a bit, arms crossed.  
  
“Doesn’t matter if you can feel it or not. It’s happening anyway,” he said and finally broke his stare from Eren to look out the window into the dark city of Essen. Eren wasn’t exactly planning on giving his cooking another try tonight, or ever again for that matter, but he didn’t want to oppose the maker.  
  
“What if I cut myself again? Cause that’s what I did, right? And you healed me?” Eren asked, looking at him while holding the plate with the potatoes he had washed earlier.  
  
The man actually gave out a small laugh, a low chuckle and turned back to Eren.  
  
“I didn’t heal you, you fucking idiot. I revived you in return of your soul. See, angels may have these annoying-ass rules and laws that they have to read out loud, like the entire bloody contract before making a deal. Me, however, don’t have to. If you would have asked something like “yes I want to live but how can I,”" he said, making a high pitched voice, "I would have answered."

Eren blinked.

"But you didn’t, you dumb-shit. So now I’m currently enjoying your soul and is probably finished in like,” he paused and looked at the clock Eren had hung over the door frame to the kitchen, “5 minutes.” 

  
Eren dumbfoundly stared at the man, standing there holding his plate of potatoes.  
  
“What’s the difference from not having a soul?”  
  
“Opposed from having one? Not much really, for you, that is. You won’t be able to enter blessed churches, you might get really cold but the biggest change for you is that you will get hungrier. So start eating the double portions or you might accidentally starve yourself,” he said, still looking bored.  
  
“Blessed churches, aren’t all churches blessed?” Eren asked, placing the potatoes on the cutting board, picking up the knife the maker had left there just a moment ago. The potatoes he wasn’t scared of cutting. He was a bit shaky though.  
  
“No, religion wasn’t what it is today. And by today I mean since like the 18th century. Then people knew how to protect themselves from demons, hell-cursed souls and devils, nowadays people have no fucking idea and the churches are rolling in more money than the casinos.”  
  
“Huh," Eren said, slowly turning back to look at the potatoes on his cutting board. Should he maybe just call an ambulance to come get him?  
  
“I’m not a fucking rabbit. I want meat, raw” the maker grunted from the table. Eren glanced warily at him but moved to open his refrigerator nonetheless. His eyes went to the bag of 1 kg minced meat he was going to make a pasta dish with. Well, he could probably save half.  
  
“I only have this,” Eren said and showed the package to him, the man sighing loudly before holding out his hand to grab it, Eren handing it to him for inspection.  
  
“I want to keep some however, meat isn’t exactly cheap,” Eren mumbled and started looking through the drawers for spare bags, grabbing a roll and removing one, turning back to the man on his table. Eren looked at him for a moment, watching him hold out the empty cartoon and plastic the meat had been in, now empty. The human furrowed his eyebrows and slowly took the trash the man was holding out.

Wait.

Hang on.   
  
Did he really eat it all? Just like that?  
  
“Gross,” he muttered and looked at Eren with disgust.  
  
“You… You’re the one trespassing into my apartment, shouldn’t you at least give me a thank you?” Eren said, still dumbfounded. Even in his confusion he still couldn't deny the fear he felt for the man in front of him.    
  
“No. Because you’re mine. I own you, Eren. I can do literally anything I want with you, your soul, your body. Anything. So I would be a little fucking nice if I were you,” the maker spoke with a calm voice, casually examining his wrists as he spoke.  

Eren could feel the tears starting to well up in his throat, his eyes going slightly glossy. He pressed his lips together and forced whatever feelings of giving up down. With a shaky breath Eren turned to walk into his bathroom. He found the old cartoon of pills, maybe they were even expired, Eren didn't care as he popped two sleeping pills into his mouth. Swallowing them dry he walked to his bedroom, turning off all the lights and weakly climbed onto his bed. He couldn't cry, not now. He was hungry but had lost all need to eat. Eren hugged himself under the covers, hiding from whatever strange illusions had hit him.   
  
***-***-***  
  
But life wasn't avoidable.

Eren eventually had to face the facts; that he had been thrown into a trippy version of his own life. The maker was there the next morning, sitting on Eren's table again, eerily watching. He didn't say anything so neither did Eren, trying his best not to look back at him. 

It was strange, Eren would catch the man in the corner of his eye and get struck with fear. Because his brain immediately connected his appearance to Eren's nightmares. However, the main difference was the maker's size here. Where he was usually big as buildings he was human-sized here. If it weren't for the horns, fangs and unhuman, white eyes he would just appear as a regular human in the crowd. Which was why Eren constantly felt on edge during his day; because he knew the man was there somewhere, watching him. But when he couldn't pinpoint on where Eren continued to have shivers run down his back.   
  
Only three days after his appearance Eren was slowly but surely getting better at ignoring his existence. Or his in-existence rather. Because the man didn't speak or try to lull Eren into talking with him, it wasn't too hard. He was still there, lounging around Eren's house when he was home and appearing in crowds when Eren was out. 

The teen had done a little bit of research online about hallucinations but couldn't find much at all. Most people seemed to talk about dead relatives appearing in front of them, and Eren was pretty damn sure the maker wasn't a relative of his. He knew him, yes, but if anything the man was like Satan to Eren. After hearing chuckling behind him however, Eren closed his laptop to go do something else. Getting mocked by the curse itself wasn't exactly fun. 

That Saturday Eren was getting ready to go out to meet with Armin and the maker was closer on his heels than usual. Eren could hear his boots directly behind him, the human itching to speed up his walking. He was already border-jogging and tried instead to calm himself down as he spotted his friend waiting outside a building. Other than that, ignoring the creature wasn't too hard. The maker wasn’t loud nor clumsy or in the way. But in the end Armin got annoyed by Eren's quick walking. 

It felt like a relief that the man didn't have any interest in Eren, but at the same time a looming thought clouded the back of Eren's mind. It felt like a calm before a storm, of some sort.   
  
When Eren woke up on Sunday he found the man sitting on his dresser, eyes meeting Eren's. The human immediately adverted his, turning around in the sheets. Eren gave it a couple seconds before peeking to the front of his bed again. This time he didn’t see anyone and slowly sat up, eyes scanning the room.  
  
Huh.  
  
Of course, there in the kitchen, the maker was sitting instead. Positioned on Eren’s dining table, legs dangling, eyes either bored or vicious, Eren couldn’t really tell. He was watching him from across the hallway. Eren scratched his stomach and wandered into the bathroom to shower. He couldn’t really remember if he had any dreams or not that night.  
  
When Eren walked into the kitchen he found the maker rummaging through his drawers, forcing himself to man up and enter the room nonetheless. His kitchen was quite narrow and Eren tried to absently walk a little closer to his fridge than usual while passing the man. Passing him he opened said fridge to take out a cartoon of milk, sneaking a look at the man who had his back to the human. His eyes traveled to the large horns, Eren gulping.

He wasn't as successful ignoring the man that morning. When Eren went through the last of his milk he couldn't help to watch the man pick up things and fiddle with them, glare at his mixer, pressing his fingers against the blades. The granola in his mouth tasted weird somehow as he chewed it down, current attention focused on the other who was pressing the button on a mixer with the cord and plug dangling to the floor from the device.  
  
At first it was funny and Eren was about to fail the silent-competition and laugh. However when the maker started getting more annoyed and looked real mad Eren stopped smirking. The maker focused his eyes on the mixer again and the buzzing sound made Eren jump in surprise. His cover was blown and Eren instantly turned his head as the maker followed the noise from him hitting the table. The human could see him staring at him from the corner of his eye but Eren chewed his cereal, staring straight ahead.  
  
How the fuck had he done that, the cord still wasn’t plugged in.

'He's not real, Eren. That's why.' 

When Eren was putting on his jacket and boots he took a quick look in the mirror to fix his hat. His eyes met grey ones in the reflection and Eren cleared his throat, looking down at his shoes when he exited the apartment. When he was closing the door the same eyes were watching him from inside, Eren calming himself down after locking the door. Because just like last time the maker was standing in the corner of the elevator when it arrived on Eren's floor. 

"Have you seen the movie 'Devil'?" the maker suddenly asked behind him, Eren freezing to a stop. With some quick thinking Eren walked back outside before the doors could close and took the stairs instead. He hated having given up and falling into the man's traps, but Eren had indeed seen that movie. 

Both Jean and Marco were waiting outside his apartment building and Eren said his hello’s, refusing to turn around to watch if the maker had followed him. He hadn’t heard him as he walked down the stairs.   
  
“I was thinking Joe’s if that’s okay with you two?” Jean asked, turning to Marco who was clad in a giant green jacket, his freckly cheeks slightly red from the cold. Jean himself was in his regular black jacket with the fake-furred hoodie. The reason Eren knew it was fake fur was because Marco was proudly vegan and Jean would never do anything to anger Marco in the slightest. If Marco told Jean in enough charming words to become a vegan too Jean would probably oblige. Even though the horse-face didn’t seem able to survive without his chili ribs, his mother’s receipt to be specific. They were good though, Eren had to agree, made American style.  
  
“Eren?” Marco asked and Eren looked up at him, pocketing his phone.  
  
“Yeah, Joe’s fine,” he said and followed Jean who had already started walking. The restaurant had pretty good variety of vegetarian burgers that Eren liked.   
  
While Marco continued to talk about school Eren tried to casually look behind them. Getting something stuck in his throat, Eren coughed eyes widening as he looked straight at the maker who wore a smirk on his face. His expression was something that reminded Eren of a fucking serial killer.  
  
“Eren, are you okay?” Marco asked as Eren started coughing louder, coming to a stop and bending forwards, trying to catch his breath as a hand was placed on his shoulder, probably Marco’s.  
  
“Is he dying?” Jean asked and Eren looked up to glare at him, busy still coughing into his arm.  
  
“Fuck you,” he said in between two coughs and Jean shrugged.  
  
“Would you look at that. He’s alive.”  
  
“Jean,” Marco scolded him and Eren straightened up, taking another deep breath before a weak last cough, looking around a bit. He couldn't the maker anywhere.   
  
“I’m fine. Just had a stroke,” Eren waved it off as they started walking again, Marco laughing.  
  
They rounded the corner and Eren froze in his tracks, his eyes widening as he took in the view in front of him. Horror filled him and his breath hitched as he watched familiar eyes staring right at him. Marco was stopped into a halt, a gun pointing at his forehead.  
  
“Stop it,” Eren found himself whispering, staring at the maker standing in their way, pointing a gun at his friend’s head. He tilted his head back as Eren spoke and raised his eyebrows as to say something along the lines of ‘oh, now you’re talking?’.

His brain put two and two together and wondered if the maker was mad because Eren had been actively ignoring him. But to this extent?  
  
Eren didn’t have time to react as Jean suddenly threw himself to Marco’s side and screamed.

 

And the gun went off.

 

Screams and yells were heard around them and Eren who had fallen against the ground in shook looked up in time to see Jean’s body fall to the ground in front of him, a dark red flowing down the asphalt where his head collided with the street, dead eyes on Eren.  
  
“What are you doing?!” Eren screamed as his head snapped up to the man, holding the gun, looking bored as usual.  
  
“What does it look like, Eren?” The maker asked, spinning the gun around his finger, once, twice and then took it in a firm grip again and pointed it at Marco again, right between his eyes.  
  
“Pang,” he mouthed and then the sound of another shot being fired echoed through the streets. Eren screamed in fear as Marco slowly fell to his knees only to drop to the ground, face first.  
  
“Oh god, oh god,” Eren breathed as he scrambled backwards, hands hitting the rough gravel in the ground as his legs were shaking too much to get him to stand up. The maker started spinning his gun again, stepping over the two bodies in front of him, following Eren.  
  
"What does this look like, Eren?” He asked again, a small smile falling on his lips as Eren stared at him, panting in fear; waiting for him to point his gun at him as well. It was the middle of the day, people were around, what was happening?!  
  
“Eren?” The maker repeated, his voice mocking. The boy in front of him didn’t reply but couldn’t take his eyes of the man in front of him. Finally the gun stopped spinning around his index finger and Eren heard himself gasp as the maker gripped it hard again.  
  
“Pang,” he mouthed again, smirk still playing on his lips as he moved his hand. His face grew into a grotesque yet exited grin on his face, eyes widening. Then he put the gun in his own mouth, taking a second to watch Eren’s eyes widen even further before he pulled the trigger.

Eren's body twitched in shook at the sound, his teary eyes watched the man fall to the ground. 

This had to be a dream, this had to be fake.  
  
People were screaming around him again, a baby was crying somewhere and sirens came closer with every second that passed.  Eventually two police cars pulled up to his right, Eren still gaping as he stared at the three bodies in front of him.  
  
“Hand’s up!” someone yelled and Eren didn’t hear it until it was repeated a second time, turning his head to look at the cops pointing their guns at him, their own faces struck with fear as their eyes scanned the scene in front of them, from the bodies to Eren still scrambling backwards in horror.  
  
“Put your fucking hand’s up!”  
  
Wait.  
  
Then his neck was grabbed and Eren moved with the strong body behind him, pushing his face against the ground, forcing him on his stomach, flat against the hard surface.  
  
“James, get his legs!” someone yelled above him and then people were on him, grabbing his arms and legs, someone sitting on him to keep him down.  
  
Wait.  
  
One of the cops stepped in front of Eren’s line of vision, the three dead bodies visible behind him, Jean’s face still staring back at Eren. His mouth gaping and now fully covered in red.  
  
“See?" a smooth voice spoke, Eren stilling from his struggling.

"See, Eren? Where this gets you? You’re just making things much more fun for me,” it continued. 

Eren tried to tilt his head upwards but couldn’t, his body was too tightly held by the police men still struggling with the handcuffs. Eren had to see, had to confirm it was the maker. But Eren could still see his body lying on the ground by Marco's still one.   
  
A rough hand suddenly grabbed Eren's hair and forced his face up. Eren braced himself for a kick or something but when nothing came he opened his eyes to meet the maker, who was now clad in a police uniform. He smiled at Eren, tipping his hat with his other hand as in a hello and the human stared back, completely out of words. Someone tugged on his wrists and Eren gasped at the pain; he wasn’t even refusing.  
  
What was going on.  
  
This had to be a dream.  
  
“Please, go on. Don’t stop now, I’m not done,” the maker said, shaking his head, his voice a bit higher than it usually was.  
  
The weights of the police men disappeared and Eren was pulled up to his toes by the hand in his hair, now standing on his own, screaming in pain in front of the maker. Which was weird because Eren had sworn the maker was actually shorter than him.  
  
“Eren. Eren, fucking concentrate,” he said and dropped his hair but grabbed his shoulders the next second, forcing Eren to turn around. The teen, still too speech-less to keep up with everything opened his eyes to see five police men hanging from the air just a meter or two over the ground, making choking noises and gripping at their own throats.  
  
“Concentrate, look” a voice whispered by his ear and held Eren’s head in place to look at the men who had panic in their eyes, one dropping his head in his frantic shaking. Eren tried to advert his eyes but instead was faced with the streets behind them. Which were now filled with people lying still on the ground.  
  
Were they dead?  
  
No, they didn’t look dead, they looked… peaceful. Were they sleeping?  
  
“FUCKING HUMOR ME,” a raging, loud command was yelled directly into Eren's ears and the human wished he could move his hands to cover them as it hurt so loud it was. It was followed by a white noise and then ringing as Eren shut his eyes, tears falling from his eyes and rolling down his cheeks.  
  
What was going on.  
  
"Please."  
  
"Please, stop."   
  
Another sound filled his ears suddenly, it reminded him of the sound his washing machine made when it started, slowly disappearing. Then something crawled down his throat, it felt like an insect or something and Eren coughed.   
  
Then complete silence.  
  
“Eren, are you okay?” Marco’s voice appeared and Eren opened his eyes in shock to stare straight at a worried-looking Marco, Jean standing behind him, hands in pockets.  
  
“Is he dying?” Jean asked and Eren’s eyes snapped back to Jean’s brown eyes, his expression slipping from a mocking one to a worried kind of look.  
  
Eren suddenly started coughing violently, bending forwards and trying to catch his breath as Marco placed his hand on Eren’s shoulder.  
  
“Eren, are you okay?” Marco asked again, voice sounding concerned as Eren took shaky breaths between each fit of coughs.  
  
“Is he d-d-d-d-d-d," Jean'v voice started, slowly turning distorted as it was slowing down to an inhumane sound. Eren looked up in shock, blinking as he was still coughing violently, eyes watering.

"d-d-d-d-d-dying-dying-d-dying?” Jean’s voice continued, speeding up again. Jean was moving and turning towards Eren but his body then turned back.

Eren got a second to see the world around him flicker, his view dizzying before it cleared completely. And then Jean was turning towards Eren again. It was like someone was pressing the rewind button on a TV remote. Like someone was fucking around with the controls. 

“Is he dying?” Jean finally asked and turned fully to look at Eren.  
  
Eren straightened up as his throat started feeling a bit better, small coughs still escaping between his breathing. Both Marco and Jean were looking weirdly at him and now a woman who passed stared at him for a moment before continuing.  
  
Had it all been a hallucination?  
  
“Do you need some water? I should have some in my bag, hang on,” Marco said and shrugged out of his backpack, unzipping it and digging around inside.  
  
Was it all going to repeat itself when they walked around the corner?  
  
“Here,” Marco said when he brought up a translucent bottle with water moving around in it. Eren uncapped it the second he got his hands on it and took a careful gulp first, not wanting the water to flow into his trachea. He took another bigger gulp, swallowing.  
  
“Thanks Marco,” Eren said when he had finished at least a third of the water, wiping his mouth with his hand and capping the bottle, handing it to Marco who still looked concerned.  
  
“Are you okay now?” He asked again and Eren nodded, giving him a small smile.  
  
“Would you look at that. He’s alive,” Jean muttered behind Marco and Marco turned to give his friend a look.  
  
“Jean,” he said and Eren watched the two, Jean rolling his eyes and Marco turning back to look at Eren.    
  
“I’m fine… Just… just had… a stroke,” Eren said, slowing down at his words towards the end. He had said this before, was he repeating himself as well?  
  
“Come on, let’s go. I’m-“ Jean said as he had started walking towards the end of the street, towards Joe’s but Eren panicked and yelled out a “wait” before Jean could take another step.  
  
“-hungry… what the hell, Jaeger?” Jean asked, turning to look at his friend in shock and slight annoyance. Probably embarrassment as well as people turned to look at them because of Eren’s loud yelling.  
  
“I-I need to go in there. T-to buy a… book. A book,” Eren said and pointed across the street to the bookstore and his friends followed his pointing with their eyes, stopping to look at the small book store with Halloween decorations covering the windows.  
  
“Okay,” Marco said and shrugged, putting on his backpack again after he had put down his water bottle.  
  
Eren nodded and looked out for cars for a second before just walking across the street. There was no way in hell he was going to walk to the end of the road to the zebra crossing, instead he waited for his friends to follow as well and entered, tears still lingering in his eyes. From the coughing or the horrible hallucination, Eren didn’t know.  
  
***-***-***


	2. Chapter 2

  
In the end they had made their way to Joe’s even after Eren had tried to convince them to go to the shitty Chinese place the was in the other direction, it was the only place he could come up with that wasn’t in the west part of town, cursing inwardly.   
  
When they passed the street and continued onto the road the visions had played out on nothing happened. There were no cops, no shooting, no nothing.  
  
Jean and Marco could probably tell something was slightly off with Eren as he continued to look around, searching for someone, sure that the maker would show up any second to fuck with Eren’s head again. His friends were casually chatting about their English classes, comparing teachers and Eren sipped his warm drink, eyes scanning Joe’s restaurant for the hundredth time.  
  
“Eren, don’t you ever miss school?” Marco asked him and Eren looked at his friend, he had his chin resting in his palm, smiling at Eren. Now that they were inside and had removed their jackets Eren could see that Marco was wearing a white, knitted shirt. Eren couldn't help but to do a double take as he realized he had seen this shirt when Marco fell to the ground earlier in the brutal dream. Or hallucination, whatever it was. The maker’s doing, either way.  
  
“Uh, well, I guess?" Eren finally managed to answer, "Kinda. I’m sure I will study something sometime, just not… today,” he smiled at Marco, hands around his warm coffee mug. There was a soft acoustic guitar song playing in the background and soon Eren relaxed at least a bit. He was still slightly on edge but he realized he was worrying his friends too much.  
  
Jean had to pick up a pair of jeans he had ordered from a store, Eren and Marco waiting outside and laughing at Jean when he tripped around in the dressing room. Eren was childishly grabbing random clothes from the rack beside the fitting rooms, which contained random clothes people didn’t want and were too lazy to put back themselves; aka everyone except Eren’s mother. First Eren grabbed a random white shirt and found it to be his size, probably Jean’s then too and he tried it seriously. Then Eren threw over a red and yellow striped long sleeve, a size or two too small and probably intended for the opposite sex. Jean just laughed but didn’t throw it back over the door which resulted in Eren throwing over all sort of clothes, whispering for Marco to ask Jean to try them on since Jean would at least listen to Marco. He clearly didn’t though as Marco was giggling between words, Eren silently laughing as he threw over a white dress with layers of fabric under the skirt, whatever that was called.  
  
“Eren, I swear to god, stop before I come out there and punch you,” Jean groaned and pushed the dress back over the door together with two other pieces of clothing Eren had shoved over the door.  
  
“If you are, please just wear the dress then,” Eren said and Marco started laughing louder, holding a hand over his mouth as a staff from the store walked into the changing rooms, giving them a look.  
  
In the end Marco had to show the contents of his backpack and prove he wasn’t stealing anything. But Jean got his jeans and even bought the white shirt as it really did look good on him. Eren could see himself throwing it off Jean in a near situation. If Jean didn’t man up and ask Marco out of course. But then again he had and air-head Marco had taken it as a friend-invitation for dinner, making Eren laugh at Jean’s story for days afterwards.  
  
And in the end Eren had spent 30 dollars on a stupid autobiography by some blonde, pink-lipped blogger that he insisted he needed, much to Marco’s surprise; he couldn’t back down after assuring them he needed to go to the book store earlier. And then there was Jean’s plain look of ‘ _you’ve lost your mind, haven’t you_ ’ accompanied by his mouth hanging slightly open as he watched Eren purchase it, making sure to save the recite in his wallet.  
  
When Eren had seen Marco and Jean off, both jumping on the subway to Marco’s place to study together, Eren made his way home. Marco had insisted they could do something else so all three could hang but Eren shook it off, assuring them it was fine, Jean giving him a small look as he said so. He waved goodbye as they passed through the gates, swiping their cards and Eren started walking home in the cold. The sky had never turned up that day, hidden behind the clouds and it was already getting dark outside, the street lights already turned on.  
  
Eren was still a bit cautious, looking around himself at other people, into alleyways and behind him every now and then. Eren made it to his flat but figured this was where he probably had the biggest possibility of running into the maker again. Eren took the stairs.   
  
He unlocked his door, moving the bag with his stupid $30 dollar book to his other hand, pushing the door a bit before opening it. It was dark inside and Eren tried to listen to any sounds of someone else than him being inside. He turned the hallway lights on, something that he rarely did as the light was way too bright. Removing his shoes and jacket, hanging the bag next to it Eren rubbed his cold hands together, taking a step forward. He warily gazed into the kitchen, finding nothing out of the ordinary. Eren instead turned his head to the hallway and his bedroom where the door was half closed; he couldn’t see inside.

Feeling like he was just waiting to get jumped Eren cleared his throat, trying to encourage himself to man up.   
  
Taking a quick look inside his living room Eren still didn't find anything strange nor did he see the horned man anywhere. The small storage room where he had stuffed his cleaning supplies was also empty. His bedroom was also deserted along with his bathroom. And now Eren realized he had basically turned on all the light in his entire apartment, scratching his cheek. With a second thought he casually turned on the TV, to calm his nerves.  
  
Washing his hands and running fingers through his hair Eren turned off the lights, closing the bathroom door after him. He was getting mildly hungry and the hours were closing in on dinner time. Should he eat early or wait a bit and get hungrier to not fuck up his routine too much?  
  
Walking into the living room to turn off the TV again as he settled for some music instead, his speaker sitting on the table. Eren brought it with him to the kitchen, suddenly stopping in his tracks as movement caught his attention. There, through the doorway Eren could see half of a familiar face watching him, the man wearing his usual bored expression. Eren felt a cold shiver run down his spine, taking a deep breath before entering the room nonetheless. The maker sat on his table as usual, arms supporting his body behind him.  
  
Eren swallowed down his worry the best he could, eyes watching the man. He wouldn't try to ignore him again, he had already got himself a harsh scolding. But Eren's eyebrows furrowed, his eyes turning to his speaker that he sat down onto the cold counter. Plugging in his phone he absently opened his music app. Instead of playing anything he simply stared at his recently played songs.  
  
“Why are you doing this?” Eren asked, breaking the silence.   
  
The maker didn’t reply and Eren didn’t look at him, pressing play on a random songs, letting them play on a low volume through the apartment. Biting at his thumb, Eren finally turned to the man, the other cooking his head, wearing a strange look. 

He then opened his mouth, Eren's eyes catching the sharp fangs the man was wearing.  
  
“Do you want me to work with you? Then you have to work a little with me here. Okay, Eren?” The maker said, this time speaking with a sort of calmness in his voice. Eren knew it could just be a mask and that anything could happen suddenly. 

But nonetheless Eren replied, breaking his promise to himself to completely ignore the creature. 

He was giving up. 

He was tired.  
  
“I don’t know what that would imply, but I don’t want another hallucination,” Eren said weakly, almost pleading.

He watched the black-haired slowly nod at his words, feet dangling in the air. Eren noted he was wearing his usual dark attire; black shirt, black leather boots that came up to his knees. His intimidating, thick horns were there, as curved and dangerous looking as last time Eren saw them. The tips seemed to be a bit grey in the light and then faded into a coal black which disappeared into the man’s hair, like he had dipped them into old, grey soot. Eyes were as grim and white as Eren remembered, now scanning the young human's face.   
  
“Then," the maker started, "as long as you’re not acting like a stuck up 10 year old with daddy issues, and ignoring the obvious and I’m feeling nice; no hallucinations,” he said. Eren gave him a puzzled look but slowly nodded. He had a feeling the maker would always think Eren was annoying so it probably all came down to when he was ‘feeling nice’.  
  
“Sounds easy,” he said either way and the man on his table scoffed.  
  
“I want food,” he said and Eren sighed, turning to the fridge. He knew he had a package of ribs inside. If he remembered correctly this was his last piece of meat but he had a feeling nothing else would work and Eren was still fearing another illusion to hit him if he displeased the man.  
  
“This is the last piece, meat is expensive you know. I’m not exactly rich,” Eren pleaded while taking out the packaged ribs, they weren’t marinated or anything so they should do the job. Raw and tasty like he wanted it. Eren made a face while placing it on the counter.  
  
“Do you want it heated? It’s still pretty frozen,” Eren asked as the maker didn’t reply to his other question. The man just held up his hand and motioned for Eren to give it to him. Eren couldn't help but to curiously watch him tear the package open and rip the bones apart like he was ripping a piece of paper to pieces, swallowing them. Bones and all.  
  
Eren cleared his throat and turned back to his refrigerator to look for anything he could eat. He didn't feel like cooking, not like he often did and found a frozen Thai dish in his freezer instead. After pressing in the 6:00 minutes into the microwave Eren fetched himself a glass of water.   
  
He took a second look towards the man again and he was indeed still sitting there, watching Eren.  
  
“Do you have a name?” Eren actually asked.  
  
“Levi,” he simply said and Eren was surprised he replied, trying the name silently on his tongue. He had a kindergarten teacher who was called that.  
  
“Can I also ask what... you are?” Eren continued as he moved to grab a pair of steel chopsticks, the one with the little dragons on them. Remembering to turn on the dish washer on, Eren listened to it buzzing to life.  
  
“I’m still hungry,” came the grumpy reply and Eren looked up to see if he was actually joking. Of course not; the maker, Levi, looked like he just stated another obvious fact.  
  
“I… I don’t have anything left. There’s a package or hot dogs but they’re spiced and already cooked,” Eren said, voice a bit worried and the man scoffed.  
  
“You could buy some, that’s how it works. I seriously doubt you’d go out to hunt a deer, right?” he said and Eren almost snorted at the picture of himself walking around the dark woods with a rifle, hunting something bigger than himself. There was a bigger chance of the sun going out than that happening.

Instead Eren sighed, looking at the water in his glass.  
  
“I’m a 19 year old who happens to have two jobs, and for that I’m thankful of, but I have to eat instant noodles to have money for other things. I-I can’t afford meat,” Eren pleaded for him to understand but he simply replied with a roll of his eyes.  
  
“There’s a man passing outside, he’s got $1 521,50 in cash in his wallet," Levi started, Eren watching him as a weird feeling crept onto him.

"He also spends most of his ‘business trips’ putting his HIV-positive dick in young girls assholes because he doesn’t want them pregnant as he _doesn’t do condoms,_ ” Levi continued, making quotation marks, ”Girls, who he buys with fake Michael Kors bags and wallets because he’s a cheap fuck. With a simple nod or yes from you I could take these $1 521 and 50 fucking cents and you could do whatever you wanted with them, granted you spend a portion of it on my fucking starving stomach.” 

Silence.

Eren stared at him in disbelief. Yet, his pulse picked up.

"You're lying," he replied, voice just a whisper. He watched an eerie grin grow over Levi's face, his eyes widening with what almost looked like complete madness. 

"Am I?" he asked, voice almost purring with excitement. 

"How can you?" Eren continued to push, feeling his heart pick up speed in his chest. What if he was speaking the truth, what if Levi had this sort of power? Could Eren take the liberty for himself and make this decision? 

"Oh, I can alright. You just trust me, Eren. Just say the magic word."

"The catch?" Eren frowned, still speaking in a hushed voice, as if this supposed man could hear him from outside. Hell, Eren shouldn’t trust Levi’s words, it could be a lie for all he knew. 

"No catch. You get it all. I just need your permission, human." Levi insisted, looking a bit impatient but also interested in whatever Eren would answer.  
  
What should he answer?  
  
“Can you somehow… like… tell the wife?” Eren mumbled aloud, having successfully pressed the stop button before the beeping could interrupt his words.  
  
“She already knows, if it’s the cheating you’re talking about,” Levi shrugged and Eren slowly nodded. He had to question Levi's words, how did he simply know all this? As far as Eren knew this could all just be a crazy hallucination, which in turn led Eren to question whether his decision actually mattered. Biting his lip Eren looked back up at Levi.  
  
“How many girls has he infected?”  
  
“Four have picked up HIV, one is 16 by the way, the other three over 20,” Levi stated, his feet continuing to swing in the air, Eren glancing at his own feet on the floor.  
  
“Can you raid his cards as well?” Eren asked, putting on a determined face and meeting Levi’s eyes straight on. Clearly surprising the other Eren felt a bit of courage fill him. 

"Oh? Getting greedy already, shitty human," he spoke with amusement audible in his voice; “I may be able to do that, yes. He might also be a millionaire now that I look closer,” Levi clicked his tongue once, waiting.  
  
“How much can I ask of you? The deal is still on? You get your meat and you cure the girls?” Eren asked, trying a different approach. Eren was very tempted here, who wouldn't be? But he was also sure there was a catch somewhere, there _had_ to be one. Levi couldn’t very well have come from the heavens to bless Eren wishes with that mouth. Or those horns.  
  
“I’ll cure the girls, make the man develop a nasty rash all over his disgusting penis, making him scratch and rub until it falls off. And I’ll take a million or two, however much you want Eren. You just say the words,” he finished sweetly, making it sound like it was the easiest things in the world.  
  
No, yeah, he was definitely from hell.  
  
Eren crossed his arms. His music was still playing in the background, some instrumental jazz, Eren couldn’t remember the name of it. Levi's eyes were still on him, wide and feral, as being watched by a hawk. A screeching sound of tires outside could be heard, someone honking, the night dark over Essen.  
  
“Didn’t seem like you needed my permission earlier today,” Eren prodded, trying to keep a straight face. He knew he was kind of stepping on thin ice here, but he wasn’t one to just say yes without hearing the terms first. Except when it came to downloading anything on his computer.  
  
Then again, with a second thought, he had apparently given away his soul...  
  
“That wasn’t real, brat. Ever heard of hallucinations? It was in your head, thought you would have figured that out by now. Don't tell me you're as dumb as you look.”  
  
Ignoring the insult Eren instead continued; "I thought you said you owned my body, mind and soul; everything.”  
  
“I do. I may own you but not in the sense that I can force you to say yes. You actually have to mean it.”  
  
“There’s always a catch,” Eren shook his head.  
  
“There’s no fucking catch," Levi finally sighed in frustration, "-if there was one I would've told you, you imbecilic.”  
  
“How do I know you’re not lying,” Eren said, his voice now weak. He was scared, stressed and trying to figure out what the best thing to do would be. Everything was leaning to a positive answer, but there had to be a catch. It was too good to be true.  
  
“I can’t lie,” Levi simply stated and Eren raised an eyebrow.  
  
“What?”  
  
“I can’t lie,” he repeated and Eren took a moment to think it over.  
  
Fuck it.  
  
“Okay, I say yes. Take the fucking money, I get $1 000 and the rest is contributed to the 4 girls, plus you heal them,” Eren finished and waited.  
  
A smirk slowly crept onto Levi’s face, nothing but pure evil in those eyes as he narrowed them at Eren.   
  
“Done.”  
  
***-***-***

The couch was comfortable under him as Eren sat with his phone in his hands, TV on in front of him. He was checking his bank balance for the tenth time, staring at the dollars. He had left his apartment earlier to do his weirdest shopping-trip yet, picking up packages of cow and pig parts. He wasn't even sure what Levi wanted, what he liked. But the maker was somehow not there, even as Eren for the first time wished he would show up so he could ask. 

The biggest fear was that he came to the register and his card was declined. The only good thing coming out of that was that he then would know he was completely out of it. Eren promised himself he would call his old psychiatrist if that happened, googling the man's number as he waited in line by the register. 

And then nothing happened, the cashier didn't even give him any weird looks. If anything it might look like Eren was having a barbecue party, a "white-people" one where he didn't know how to season things. Blinking at the woman when she handed him the recite Eren quickly turned to wobble over to his groceries. Two large bags later Eren walked home, still wearing a confused expression. Something deep inside him wanted to smile, to grin at the fortune but he couldn't celebrate yet. There was still that damn 'catch' that Eren would have to find out for himself. 

“You didn’t tell me earlier… what you were,” Eren asked after Levi had gulped down two large packages of meat. To Eren's surprise the man was rather... proper in his eating. Or rather, he wasn't messy. It still looked ridiculously vulgar as he swallowed down large chunks of meat and bone. But he didn't make a mess at all.

Levi was now sitting beside him on the couch as he had put on some documentary about a school shooting. It wasn’t precisely a mood-booster but Eren didn't exactly dare to rip the controller from his hands. The human wasn’t paying much attention to the documentary anyway. Levi’s sheer presence made him sweat; it was frightening, _he_ was frightening. As far as Eren knew the maker could throw him into another hallucination or probably hurt him really bad if he wanted to. Any second.  
  
“I’m an angel,” Levi replied, eyes still focused on the TV in front of them. 

Eren stared at him, eyes widening. 

“You’re... an angel?” Eren asked, close to gaping at the other.  
  
“Yes, God if my father and you are all my children,” Levi said and though he always sounded quite sarcastic his voice seemed to have changed a bit. His attention was still on the screen in front of them but his words seemed… softer.  
  
“B-but… you. I don’t believe you, there’s no way,” Eren frowned.  
  
“It’s true. We actually bless humans by shitting on them.”  
  
“You what.”  
  
“We shit on them, preferably in their faces. Amen.”  
  
Eren didn’t reply for a minute as he stared at the other man.  
  
“I though you said you couldn’t lie,” Eren finally said, straightening up but keeping his eyes on Levi. His hands dug into the soft material of his blue fleece blanket, keeping it as a small barrier between them.  
  
The Levi sighed.  
  
“You fucking idiot, you’re so naive,” he said and crossed his arms, leaning back against the sofa. Eren glanced at the screen as the volume was turned up a few bars, the remote lying untouched on the sofa between them.    
  
Eren stared at his hands, embarrassment crawling up his body. A sense of panic and dread filled him, yet Eren didn't know what to say. What to do.  
  
He had trusted him. He was such a fool.  
  
Eren lifted up his legs from the floor, still feeling incredibly ridiculed, and pulled his knees against his chest. Pressing his nose against his knees Eren closed his eyes, refusing to question whether the story about the man was real as well. Eren wasn't sure he wanted to know.   
  
“Levi?” he couldn’t help himself to ask a minute later.  
  
The maker didn’t reply but let out a small sigh, as if acknowledging Eren.  
  
“Are you a demon?” Eren tried, watching the man from where the teen was hiding in his blanket like a child, peeking up from behind his knees, eyes curious yet cautious and scared.  
  
“Something along the lines of that, yes,” he said and Eren nodded, happy that he had gotten an earnest answer this time, at least of what he knew. It sounded earnest but Eren had learned now that he couldn't ever trust him. 

A demon.  
  
Eren was getting too disturbed by the videos on the TV and decided to get up and go to bed. He still wasn’t an idiot to try to change the channel or whine to Levi that it was scary. Hell, Eren was even nervous about getting up from the couch to walk in front of the TV for half a second; playing it safe by waiting until there was a commercial break.  
  
“Could you t-turn it off when you’re done?” Eren asked, involuntary stuttering.   
  
“Sleep tight,” was all Levi said, eyes still plastered on the screen where a woman was gently holding a bottle of detergent in her hands like it was her most prized possession.  
  
Eren did have dreams that night. But not the gut-wrenching horrifying ones. Instead he was peacefully sailing an unnamed lake with his mother and Mikasa.  
  
***-***-***  
  
“Brat, someone’s knocking on your fucking door,” Levi glared at him. Having kicked him from across the sofa, the demon looked obviously annoyed, head resting in his hand. Eren had removed one earbud as Levi had turned to kick him after Eren clearly didn’t reply the first time.  
  
The maker seemed to have grown an interest for the TV and it was on regularly now. Eren was mildly bitter about it; he was glad the demon seemed to have found something else to do than stalk Eren, but now he was constantly taking up Eren's couch. The human only got some small space to sit on the other end, which wasn’t ‘his end’.  
  
Eren placed his laptop on the sofa table, removing his earphones from his head and jogging to the door, listening to the loud knocks.  
  
“Hello Eren," the old man from the bottom floor greeted him. The guy with the flower collection.

"Sorry for bothering you. Are you busy?” 

“Oh, no it’s fine,” Eren said, smiling. The old man had changed his attire and wore a suit this time. Eren could for the love of God not remember his name.  
  
“Well, I’ve started baking a pie you see, it’s a pumpkin pie because all the stores sell so many pumpkins now that Halloween is closing in, you know. But I’ve run out of butter, I was wondering if I could just borrow some for the time being? My walking isn’t what if used to be, you see…”  
  
Eren was already nodding and replying “of course, of course,” before the man was even done with his sentence, opening his door further and walking into his kitchen to check in his refrigerator. Yep, there he had a piece of 500 g butter.  Taking it Eren turned to walk back into the hallway but stopped in his surprise as the old man had entered his kitchen.   
  
There was something off about his smile.  
  
Why wasn’t he moving?  
  
“You’re such a sweet boy-“  
  
“Eren, you need to re-do these equations” a voice made the man and Eren to turn their attention to the hallway where a tall, dark haired man was walking out from Eren’s bedroom, a book in his hand, looking up at the two and raising his eyebrows.  
  
“Oh, sorry. I didn’t know we had a guest?” He said and Eren was still too baffled to say anything, staring at the man who looked… surprisingly a lot like himself, a bit taller and older.  
  
“Play along,” a voice from nowhere whispered in his ear and Eren felt a shiver run down his spine, looking to the tall man back to the floor.  
  
“No, I’m sorry for intruding. Eren here just made me a huge favor, I’m cooking and I ran out of butter. I promise I’ll get you some next time,” the man said and started to exit Eren’s apartment, now suddenly walking fast.  
  
“Oh, well that’s little brother for you. Always trying to help,” the tall man said, smiling in Eren’s direction and then back to the man.  
  
“I need to hurry back now, I still have my oven on, we don’t want to start a fire just because some old geezer forgot about his oven,” the old man chuckled a bit awkwardly as he was turning to wave them off before closing the door after him, Eren waving goodbye, still stumped for words.  
  
He instantly turned to the hallway where now Levi was standing and Eren stared at him in shock. The guy, who looked like him, had just been there. Was he an illusion as well? But the old man had clearly seen him too.  
  
“Wha-?” Eren got out as Levi snorted in front of him.  
  
“You’ve been in his apartment, right?” Levi interrupted before Eren could continue. The demon looked slightly more pissed than he usually did.  
  
“I… yes?” He replied, still dumbfounded.  
  
“Tsk. Well, dear Kenny here has a hobby of rape and child pornography. We have a lot of those men in hell, of course this one isn’t dead yet but, I recognize one when I see one,” he shrugged and walked past him, into the kitchen, his heels clanking against the floor.  
  
“No!” Eren yelled, holding out his arms, following Levi.  
  
“No?” Levi asked, looking mildly surprised as he turned in his steps to meet Eren’s gaze.  
  
“Well… I- How do you even know that? You’re a devil, I can’t trust anything you say,” he said and his voice quieted down towards the end, looking at the floor.  
  
“I could show you,” Levi suggested and Eren froze, frowning. Show him? Like one of the illusions? Horrible pictures? What did it change even if he knew that the man was a pedophile, he didn’t have any proof to the police.  
  
“W-will it hurt?” He hurried to ask as Levi tilted his head, looking at him.  
  
“Why would it hurt? What the fuck do you mean? I’m not gonna make him rape you if that’s what you’re thinking.“  
  
“No… I meant how… you would show me, like in a vision? Like last time?” Eren asked, staring at the carpet.  
  
“Oh, yeah, that,” Levi laughed, Eren furrowing his eyebrows.  
  
“No, I won’t shoot you, honey,” he chuckled as jumped up on the table, his eyes darkening.  
  
The next thing Eren knew he wasn’t standing in his kitchen anymore, his vision completely changed and his eyes hurt as they didn’t quite catch up. Then he saw the old man, he didn’t have any clothes and the view in front of Eren made him instantly turn away. An old man jacking off with a laptop in front of him wasn’t anything Eren wanted to see. Disturbed, Eren looked at anything around him but that. His vision was blurry as Eren managed to stand, catching sight of a door behind him. He had to get out.   
  
When he opened it Eren almost screamed in fear. On the floor in front of him was a little girl sitting, she had to still be in kindergarten, her hands and legs tied and a gag around her mouth.  
  
“Oh my god,” he screamed, panicking.  
  
“Levi, stop. Please!” He yelled and then he saw the old man again, hovering over him, sweating and smiling, his fat fingers reaching for Eren. He smelled like death in Eren's nostrils.   
  
He shut his eyes and yelled again when he felt someone touch him, trying to kick his legs against him but they were tied together and glued to the floor. His arms were cramping, pain splitting through them and Eren gasped in fear. Suddenly he fell through cold water and opened his eyes on instinct. Seeing Levi standing in front of him, arms crossed and eyes watching Eren like he was doing something stupid. Then Eren hit the wall behind him, holding out his hands in front of him as his hallway wall felt cold against his cheek, his knees digging into the carpet.  
  
Eren gasped for breath, hands sliding down to the floor again as Eren carefully moved to lie down on the floor, whimpering in after-shock as he hugged himself, tears escaping his wide eyes.  
  
“I didn’t think you’d have this reaction,” Levi said in his collected voice and Eren gasped, because he was truly cruel.  
  
“Is… is the girl okay?” He got out between cries, feeling himself nearing hyperventilation by now. He had to calm down. He didn’t want to imagine the pictures in his head again so he kept his eyes opened. His mind curiously tried to bring them back but it didn’t work, he only remembered the feeling and smells, the pictures were gone from his memories.  
  
“She’s with her mother, up above,” Levi said, his voice still sounded a bit... off. Eren understood. Levi didn't mean in an apartment above them but some place much, much higher.   
  
“Kill him. Levi, kill the man,” Eren breathed, tears still flowing, his body hurting.  
  
“Okay then,” Levi said and Eren shut his eyes, a deep sleep hitting him like a silent storm.  
  
***-***-***  
  
Eren woke up in his bed, slowly sitting up and looking out his window. The sun was still up and there were sounds of cars and people outside, a dog barking twice. It all felt familiar, but somehow melancholy.   
  
“Levi,” Eren asked into the sheets, holding his hands to his chest under the sheets. He knew the demon could hear him, the TV was turned on and Eren’s voice was barely a whisper, but Levi would hear him. Eren had learned that much.  
  
“What?” A voice appeared and Eren peeked over to see Levi sitting on his bed, looking at him.  
  
“Why are you here?” Eren asked, hiding behind his sheets, only his eyes peeking over the soft blankets. Levi met his eyes but took his time before he spoke, Eren having to break the eye contact as it was getting too intimidating for him.    
  
“I’m what you would call a curse, Eren,” Levi replied and the human inhaled, exhaled, and just lied there, staring into the wall. Levi’s silhouette was sitting still in the corner of his view.  
  
“Why?” He whispered.   
  
“Because your father made a deal with a demon.”  
  
“Why?”  
  
“To save your mother from death,” Levi said, Eren now noticing the sounds around them were tuned out, turned down like someone had pressed mute on a remote. The TV was off, there were no sounds of cars or people, no honking, no barking. There was a wind passing somewhere in the background as Levi spoke and Eren wondered where it came from.  
  
Eren didn’t reply and after a moment Levi continued.  
  
“Carla Jaeger died Marsh 30th, 19 years ago. Her husband had gotten himself deep with the wrong stuff, with the damned people and earth-bound spirits and he was promised a cure by a crossroad demon in turn of his son’s mind. The contract, however, was slightly tampered by someone, still not sure, though I have my predictions, and you were assigned an Alp. And Alp isn’t that too different from a Mare, but I was just done with my previous food and here we are,” he explained, his tone soft.  
  
“Your father left after your little sister was born as he probably felt too embarrassed or something, I don’t know, I don’t really get your emotions. Even after so many years being around greedy humans. Carla Jaeger never knew about her death and your curse,” he said, Eren moving his head to look at him, feeling the heavy stone in his chest grow heavier.  
  
“Why do you do it?" Eren asked, rubbing his eyes, "I get that you’re not human and your mind doesn’t work like mine... but what's so satisfying about watching humans hurt and die?” Eren asked, his tired brown eyes still on Levi’s hard and cold ones. His expression was a bit of a pitying one now, Eren noticed.  
  
“Why do you eat? Why do you sleep? Why do you live? It’s the same question,” Levi replied, changing his position so he sat with his legs crossed. He wasn’t wearing any socks, Eren realized.  
  
“…to survive?” Eren asked instead and Levi shrugged, reaching up to scratch his chin.  
  
“I feed of fear, it’s fucking mouth-watering, hell, maybe even better than souls,” he chuckled.  
  
Eren understood, nodding. His mind in exchange for his mother’s life, he couldn’t blame his father for the deal. He was a bit… disappointed but then again he had to remember he was just a fetus when his father made the deal. Grisha had known Carla for so many years and Eren for maybe a minute or day.  
  
“So you won’t kill me?” Eren asked, rolling over to his side and Levi raised an eyebrow.  
  
“What would I gather from that?”  
  
“I don’t know, you tell me,” Eren said, his anger slowly slipping away. He knew why Levi was here now, he knew why his dreams were as they were. If Levi spoke the truth, it all made sense. Then again, that was if he indeed was speaking the truth. Eren was too tired to think up something else that could remotely make sense.   
  
“I’ll lose my food, that’s what,” Levi rolled his eyes as if it was the obvious and Eren laughed, actually laughed. It was all sort of... relieving. In a matter of minutes Eren now had his entire piss-poor life explained to him. All the questions were answered, just like that. Eren was undoubtedly too tired to question it.   
  
“Can’t we just… I don’t know, watch horror movies? I like those,” Eren suggested, feeling like giggling. Levi stared down at him, looking slightly unimpressed. Ah, he had finally gone mad?  
  
“We could fuck?”  
  
…  
  
“…I’m sorry, what?” Eren asked, not sure he heard correctly.   
  
“We could fuck, have sex, intercourse, screw, I put my dick in your-“  
  
“What?!” Eren asked, sitting up in his bed, moving to the end of the bed, away from Levi. Grabbing his pillow from behind him he held it in front of him, staring at the other in shock.   
  
“I feed on fear but also sex. You see, my mother was a succubus. I didn’t get the luring ability nor can I sing for shit, but somehow I can feed off it,” he shrugged and Eren slowly nodded. Then quickly he shook his head.   
  
“Like… rape?” He carefully asked, keeping the pillow in a tight fist. If Levi flew onto him Eren wouldn’t go down without a fight. Even if he knew he would lose, he wouldn’t just take it.  
  
“"Rape creates fear but no sexual emotions, idiot.”  
  
“Ah…” Eren said and stared at Levi who was now inspecting his nails.  
  
Eren could put two and two together, however, sleeping with a demon… was that really wise? Levi looked good and all, maybe a bit short but he surely wasn’t unattractive. Eren frowned at his own thoughts, quietly calling himself mad inside his head. 

 Definitely mad. 

***-***-***

 

Somehow, in the chaos of it all, Eren had grown accustomed to Levi stalking his existence. He had a really weird sense of humor and would every now and then throw Eren into strange hallucinations, the human frowning at the small doll sitting on his couch in the living room. He knew that doll, had seen the movie Chucky more than once, the orange, messy hair standing in all directions. Suddenly dread filled Eren as the doll started laughing loudly and launched at him. 

Having the reaction skill like a sloth Eren brought up his arms way too slow, at least closing his eyes before he got stabbed in his face by the dumb horror-movie character. But the pain never came and Eren slowly opened his eyes, staring around the room, his heart still beating wildly. 

“Mhm, good,” a low voice appeared just by Eren’s ear, a warm presence against his back. Eren sighed as he tried to calm himself down, heart instead raising as Levi reached out a tongue to lap against the teen’s throat. 

And somewhere along the road Levi had started doing things like that, grinning at the flush that grew over Eren’s cheeks as he moved away from the demon. Or Alp, half succubus or whatever he was. 

“I’m leaving for work, please don’t follow me,” Eren muttered, grabbing his phone from the TV table, going back into the hallway where Levi was now leaning against the doorway to the kitchen, arms crossed. While putting on his boots Eren watched him lean up and scratch the base of his horns like he had a tendency to do. 

“We’re doing two movies tonight, I’m fucking starving,” the demon said, fixing Eren with a look. 

The human sighed, grabbing his door handle, bag over his shoulder. 

“You’re so fucking lucky it’s me that you’re haunting,” Eren mumbled, opening it. 

“You’re so fucking lucky I’m nice,” Levi replied, Eren staring at him. Then he closed the door, the lock clicking behind him before Eren took the elevator down. 

It was getting colder outside with every passing day, Eren pulling his beanie further down his head as he turned to walk towards the closest subway entrance. The ride to work was boring as usual, Eren staring at his phone sa music played in his earphones. Facebook informed him Armin had won some sort of award for his research team at the medical school. Eren was a horrible friend because he couldn’t even remember what it was they were researching. He was positive Armin had mentioned something about eyesight though. 

Before the doors opened at Eren’s stop he sent Armin a congratulating message, skimming through the article that explained it was indeed stuff about eye neoplasms and other stuff Eren didn’t understand. 

Work was still mildly fun enough. It was money and Eren needed money. He hadn’t gotten the energy to go visit his uncle to film video reviews about new cameras and equipment and there was an obvious reason why. Eren didn’t need money as he used to. 

He still hated stealing it, as it practically was. But whenever Eren was staring inside his fridge or at the scribbled shopping list from Levi that just said “buy me meat, shit-face” Eren had to comply. He tried to make it at least a little justifying, pointing out ‘bag guys’ or rich people. And that was exactly what he did. Eren would stand by his living room window and literally point at people, asking questions which Levi would reply. 

It was still incredibly strange and surreal but when Levi’s eyes lit up, the demon turning to Eren to say “a mob boss passed, he’s murdered quite a few people,” the human nodded. 

Levi wasn’t as harsh with his illusions anymore and even as Eren had grown accustomed to many of it, they were still horrifying. The human had pleaded for the demon to show him mercy during the nights however, and agreed to watch horror-movies and shows with the demon instead. And at last Eren slept peacefully. 

Apparently Levi would’ve been bound to only control his dreams until the day Eren slipped up, which he had those weeks ago with the stupid turnips. Death by cooking, that would've been an article. 

Work was slow and Eren nowadays always found himself question whether work was really necessary. Especially when rude people wanted to complain about nothing, or things that was out of Eren’s hands. Because couldn’t he just quit his job and receive money illegally? He would have to lie to his friends of course, and pretend to go to work every now and then… and that was how far Eren’s thoughts usually went before he mentally convinced himself it was a stupid idea. First of all, it was still stealing. No matter how bad the person was it was how human society worked. Secondly, Eren didn’t have to conscience to. Something in the back of his head added the word “yet” to that statement. 

Another thought crawling around his brain was the fact that he still didn’t own a soul, and Eren had slowly started to notice there were actual symptoms. He ate much more than he did before, not necessarily anything in particular, but the teen usually ordered large portions and was never uncomfortably full anymore. 

Eren was wondering if he was imagining things or if his sex drive had risen as well, not completely sure. He got one last blowjob from Jean before his friend finally went on a successful date with Marco the following week. And then, just like that, Jean was off limits. And completely, utterly love-struck about the freckled man. 

Eren had gone out pubbing with Krista and Ymir, along with some people at work, but Eren hadn’t had any luck with taking anyone home. But he also knew he hadn’t been trying that hard. His hand would have to do. And in the shower as well, as Levi had once appeared when Eren was getting ready to finger himself. 

The demon was proposing it all the time, he had even picked up his game and was constantly trying to flirt Eren into it. If anything he was just flustering the teen, Eren growing annoyed with the teasing. 

“Bring your friend here again, I’ll watch,” Levi had suggested that evening when Eren had let Levi put on some random horror movie. It was in Japanese and already quite weird, Eren eating his microwaved dinner, legs crossed on the couch. 

“I’ve already told you, Jean is dating Marco,” Eren replied to the demon sitting beside him. Levi had his head resting in his hand as he shrugged and turned back to the TV, both watching a girl searching an abandoned house. Eren couldn’t even remember what she was looking for in the first place, probably an irresponsible little brother or something. 

“You’re not even mildly scared,” Levi said, his speech slurred by his hand he was resting against. 

“It just started, chill,” Eren huffed, taking another bite of the pasta dish. He was sort of contemplating warming it up more in the microwave, but couldn’t be bothered. At least it wasn’t icy. 

Eren didn’t exactly understand how Levi’s demonic things works but whenever Eren would jump in fright or cower because of scary scenes in the movies Levi would turn quiet, leaning closer to sniff around him. It was weird, to say the least, but most things with Levi around. 

The teen just gave up questioning it all, demons and angels, Levi was sure as hell real as he could make himself visible for Eren’s friends if he wanted to fuck with the kid. 

As a loud bang was heard from his TV’s speakers Eren jumped on the couch, holding up a hand to hide behind as a grotesque monster fell through a door, starting to hunt the main character down a hallway. 

“Uh, huh,” Levi said in his ear, pushing Eren’s hand down. He tried to desperately ignore Levi now sniffing up and down his neck, staring at the screen. He had been serious earlier that morning. Levi should be glad Eren was a huge horror movie fanatic. And that he easily got scared by them as well. 

An hour later and Eren could safely say the movie was a good pick on Levi’s behalf, because Eren was close to freaking out. Of course the apartment was dark around them, the volume turned way up. One of Levi’s horns bumped into the back of Eren’s head, but the human couldn’t move his eyes from the screen. The main character was hiding inside a closet as the new monster searched for her, Eren just waiting to be jumpscared. 

***-***-***

Christmas had just passed and Eren sat on a train back towards Essen. It had been the longest he was without Levi’s presence around. A full week, and even though it was difficult to admit, Eren had missed him. 

The demon’s dark humor had grown onto Eren and he found himself looking forwards to horror movie marathons as well. Really, Levi was hella lucky Eren loved those kinds of movies. He wasn’t very fond of gory, disturbing ones nor was Levi since instead of getting scared Eren just got grossed out. 

And Eren’s brain was connecting the safety of his home with Levi by now, it was where the demon usually stayed during the days, binging the Discovery Channel or Animal Planet. 

Since their routines of watching something scary Eren was rarely haunted by hallucinations from the demon other than when Levi was annoyed with him. They were also much less predictable and while they surely got Eren far more scared he also got nauseous, which obviously no one liked. 

So the teen accepted his fate and made it a habit to watch some slasher movies or whatnot with Levi before bedtime.

Even though Levi didn’t have any obligation to not lie he did have a couple of rules Eren soon found out, living with him. For example the demon couldn’t force him into anything, just as Levi had said. He was unable to control anything but the visions Eren could find himself in. He still had full control over his mind at night as well, but Eren was surprised to find himself in his usual nightmare scenario, Levi just asking for company. The demon didn’t sleep in the way Eren did but the human had caught him unmoving beside him in bed a couple times. 

Levi also usually told the truth. He liked to mess with Eren, yes, but he was in a way quite proper. As long as he got what he wanted he was also pretty calm, or bored as he would call it himself. 

Before Eren had left to live with his family for a week they had binged the Paranormal Activity movies, Levi in turn promising not to bother the human for that week. 

Almost sighing at the thought Eren knew he would come home to a grumpy and hungry Levi. 

And just as expected the demon greeted him with a couple jump scares the first minutes, Eren’s heart racing as he put his suitcase on his bed, fishing out his charger. A second later his charger gave off a flash, Eren dropping it in surprise. He then sighed and picked it up again, ignoring the attempt to scare him. 

“I know you’re hungry but I promise I’ll go pick up some meat after my phone has a bit of battery,” Eren told Levi who sat in his regular spot on the kitchen table. 

“Fuck the meat, let’s watch The Storm, I heard it’s got demons,” Levi said, crossing his arms. Eren looked at him, a bit surprised but shrugged. 

“Sure, I’ll just make a snack,” Eren said as he prepared 4 pieces of toast for himself. He already had a plus meal earlier which he brought onto the train, now only looking for something light. The curse of being soul-less. 

“So guess what,” Eren asked when he sat down on his couch, propping up his legs onto the table as he let Levi put on the movie. The demon had learned how to do it by now. 

“What?” Levi muttered, sitting closer to the human than usual. Eren didn’t mind, he was strangely always quite warm in temperature. With the windy snow-storm outside Eren certainly didn’t mind. 

“So mom has met this new guy, they’ve been friends for a while but she seems really head over heels about him,” Eren explained, watching the logo’s of movie companies appear on the screen, one after the other. 

“Eren, I don’t give a-”

“And he seems nice too, a bit boring but like, rather that than too wild, right? She’s still my mom. And Mikasa likes him as well, man she’s grown up so much since I last saw her-”

“Like a month.”

“-and she’s even got a girlfriend!” Eren exclaimed, grin on his face. Levi reached up to grab his chin so he would look at the TV screen where the movie apparently was starting. 

“I felt like I should be contributing a bit to the family as well,” Eren chuckled, a bit of sadness in his voice. He couldn’t deny he was starting to miss even Jean’s company; obviously he missed the sex but it was the small things, like cuddling in the morning or hanging around another person that Eren missed.

“Yeah, yeah, now shut up” Levi replied. 

“The production value is a lot higher than I expected,” Levi mumbled after a couple minutes. Eren absently nodded, watching the camera pan in on a moving rocking-chair. 

Nonetheless Eren grew a bit bored after a while. He was wondering whether he had watched this movie before, recognizing certain scenes. He certainly didn’t feel that spooked anymore. 

Glancing at his phone he saw that Armin had sent him a text. Absently replying Eren then looked back to the screen, feeling a pair of eyes glaring at him from his left. 

With caution Eren curiously turned to look at the demon, Levi glaring at him. 

“What? I can’t exactly fake being scared, can I?” Eren said, turning to the TV where a girl was screaming in panic about something. 

Something in the corner of his eye caught his attention and Eren narrowed his eyes at Levi, ignoring the obvious ghost Levi was projecting. A second passed in silence and when Eren saw whatever it was moving he threw his arms over his eyes, leaning into the demon.

Eren could hear Levi’s loud sigh, the demon clearly frustrated with the other. 

“Don’t hide,” he scolded the human who looked up at him, leaning back. 

“I’m sorry, I’m just not…” Eren tried, looking at his hands. 

An idea hit him, one that had been on his mind for a couple days now. The mere thought made his heart flutter, Levi probably able to hear the sound. With a bit of curiosity Eren looked up, eyes meeting the other’s. 

Levi raised an eyebrow and Eren bit his lip in turn. 

“I’m going to hell, right? After I die?” he asked, ignoring the screams of terror on the screen. 

“Yes,” Levi simply confirmed, like it was obvious. He had told Eren before though, the teen just wanted to make sure. 

“And it’s not as horrible as our movies depict it to be?”

“Well, it’s not as disgustingly wonderful as heaven, I’ll tell you that,” Levi shrugged, Eren slowly nodding. 

“Okay,” he slowly nodded, turning to face the other more. Levi’s eyes narrowed as Eren wavered between what to do, thoughts fogging up his head. What was he doing?

Two fingers caught his chin, tilting his head up where Eren’s eyes met Levi’s. 

And when the demon leaned in, Eren didn’t move back, instead letting his eyelids fall closed. Then he started kissing back. 

Catching Levi by surprise was amazing and Eren would’ve loved to see more of his reaction but his body made him shut up. Made him focus on the fluttering of his heart, the ticklish feeling over his skin and the soft lips against his. 

Eren missed kissing, missed having another person’s lips against his. The sensuality of slowly opening his mouth to let his tongue taste, let someone in. And while Eren shouldn’t have expected anything else, he was still overwhelmed with how Levi felt against him. 

He was power, danger and mischief; something Eren shouldn’t be doing.

A hand sneaked up behind Eren’s head to hold him in place as Levi tilted his head, deepening the kiss. Slowly nodding their heads Eren got to taste the demon’s lips and his sharp tongue.

The excitement of knowing that it was kind of wrong, it made Eren shiver. He sometimes felt it when he was kissing boys too, because it still wasn’t the norm. Especially when people who saw him had expected him to be straight as a stick. 

Making out with a demon was a completely new experience; it was exhilarating, Eren quickly growing addicted to the taste of Levi. The smell of him he knew, the flavour of his tongue was all different. 

There was something about him, something so powerful it had the human whimpering under him. Opening his eyes he caught Levi’s watching him; white eyes livid, feral. 

With two arms grabbing him Eren was slow to react, only grabbing onto Levi as he was lifted into the air. With his breath hitched and his pupils blown out the human let the demon carry him into the bedroom, the TV suddenly silent behind them. 

Eren still felt like he should be a bit cautious, maybe reconsider this, but when Levi’s mouth caught his attention again Eren complied. The small, worried voice in the back of his head was tuned out by the human’s pants, his hands traveling to Levi’s neck. With gentle fingers he felt his skin, the short hair of his military undercut and the strong jaw. Eren’s hand moved over Levi’s left ear, the human opening his eyes in the kiss, leaning back. Curiosity was suddenly prioritized over his dick’s desire and Eren pushed the black hair back to examine the elf-like ear. Something he had never seen about Levi before. 

Levi gave him a look as he carefully put Eren down on his bed, their eyes meeting. 

When the demon didn’t continue Eren took the liberty to run his hands further up, fingers almost trembling in anticipation before grabbing around the horns. They were rather cold, hard like stone. Eren had petted a couple goats at the local zoo when he was younger, but these felt a lot more… strong against his fingers. 

Levi moved between his legs, shuffling closer and pushing his crotch against Eren’s, the human sighing in pleasure at the feeling. His hands fell from the large horns, attaching to Levi’s shirt instead. Without being told the demon sat back up and removed it, the piece of cloth stretching over the horns on the way off. 

“We-” Eren started, pausing to swallow. He couldn’t help but to be nervous. 

“We’ll do this, but I don’t want it to be painful or… scary or anything,” Eren said, wanting to make sure the other knew. He was somehow positive Levi wouldn’t physically hurt him, because he hadn’t yet done that. But just in case… 

The guy was a demon after all. 

“But you look like the little boy who would enjoy some BDSM,” Levi said, smirk having fallen over his face. Suddenly he crawled further over his body and Eren noticed his pants and underwear was gone, eyes falling onto his cock standing proudly. 

“Levi,” the human said, sitting up and meeting him eye to eye. “Promise me.”

“Cross my heart and hope to die,” Levi then said, reaching to pull off Eren’s hoodie. The teen figured that was the best he was going to get; this was Levi after all. 

A hand fell onto the bulge in his pants, Eren again relaxing further because of the feeling. Grabbing onto his own jeans he wiggled out of them as Levi unzipped them, pulling off Eren’s underwear in the move. 

“How long since you got some cock, Eren?” he asked, leaning over him, making Eren completely question whether Levi was really shorter than him or not. He knew the other could alter his appearance so he shouldn’t even bother.

“Too long,” the teen grunted in reply, being honest. 

“Well you’re the one who’s been refusing me,” Levi said, getting straight to the point as he grabbed Eren by the base. The human in turn let out a groan when Levi started moving his fingers after leaning down to spit in his hand. It wasn’t exactly charming but Eren couldn’t care less; it felt fucking amazing. He closed his eyes, basking in the feeling. There was such a big difference doing it yourself and having another person jack you off. 

“You’re a demon. Everything I’ve ever heard about your sort or anything that come from hell, for that matter, isn’t exactly good. I’ll probably wake up without my fucking heart tomorrow or something.”

Eren wasn’t sure why he was saying this now, especially since Levi wasn’t doing anything indicating he would slow down his hand around Eren’s shaft. Not that the human wanted him to. 

“I’ll let you know that we creatures from hell are much better at pleasing humans in bed than the stiff angels are,” he chuckled, “-Then again I wouldn’t exactly invite a Popobawa into bed if I was you,” Levi added, half a mumble. 

Eren slowly nodded, letting out a gasp as Levi reached down with his other hand to rub a finger against his entrance. 

“Is heaven as nice as they say?” Eren asked out of the blue, only catching the words after they left his mouth. He looked at Levi who raised an eyebrow. 

“You’re asking me? A demon?”

“Right.”

Levi rolled his eyes but reached for something beside him, Eren’s bottle of lube which had obviously not been lying there before. 

“Can you use telekinesis on everything-” Eren started but quieted as Levi leaned over to shut him up. He didn’t push him away when Levi lulled him into another makeout session. The demon could probably tell Eren way trying to hide his nervousness behind the many questions he threw at the other. It quickly distracted the human and he reached up to hold onto Levi’s horns again. That would definitely become a habit…

A slicked finger pressed against his entrance again, Eren awaiting the particular feeling of being stretched. Jean wasn’t very good at this and neither had Thomas been back when Eren dated him. Sure, Jean was great with his tongue but his fingers were way too bony for Eren’s liking. 

So when the human immediately started feeling good from Levi’s fingers he wondered if the demon was using some sort of magic. Eren arched from the sheets, both hands grabbing Levi’s wrist between his legs to make sure he didn’t stop. 

“Feeling good?” the demon asked, Eren nodding eagerly. He opened his eyes, glancing at him. 

“You?” he asked in return. Levi wasn’t getting any physical pleasure as far as Eren could see but the demon smiled nonetheless. 

“I know you can give me more though,” he said, probably referring to the sexual pheromones or whatever it was he was feeding on. 

“Then hurry up and fuck me,” Eren said, playfully tugging on the horns. Levi didn’t even move an inch from Eren’s try, the human absently marveling at his strength.

“I’ll fuck you with my horns if you continue with that,” Levi huffed, Eren releasing them with a chuckle. Before Levi could move further Eren sat up to his knees to meet Levi’s lips again, the demon’s hands coming to rest at his hips. 

With an excited shudder Eren then pulled back, turning around to get on all fours. Getting comfortable on the covers he propped his two pillows under his chest and head, leaning forwards. Gazing at Levi over his shoulder he watched the demon narrow his eyes. 

But when Levi still didn’t move to do anything Eren finally raised an eyebrow. 

“What?” he asked, suddenly feeling a bit self conscious. Did Levi lose his boner or something?

“Nothing,” the demon replied, crawling forwards to grab a rough hold onto Eren’s hips again, pushing him down slightly before helping himself inside. The human hid his face in his pillow, focusing on relaxing. Levi was rather big, that he had seen before, but while it was more work now Eren knew he would seriously enjoy it in a couple of minutes. 

Soon enough Eren could feel the familiar pleasure of penetration, gasping into his pillow when Levi took a grip of his cock below him. 

“Don’t orgasm too quickly now, brat,” Levi said in a surprisingly composed voice. Maybe he didn’t actually feel any sexual pleasure at all and was just in it for the feeding. 

Eren did a trick that always made Jean happy and clenched around the dick inside him, listening for a reaction. A smile fell on Eren’s lips as he heard Levi chuckle darkly behind him, hands caressing over Eren’s hips. 

Thrusting his shaft deeper Eren let out another whine, one hand grabbing onto the headboard for balance. He was getting near, he could feel it. 

But Levi would have none of that, suddenly pulling out only to grab Eren and flip him over. He panted up at the demon who kept eye-contact while entering him again, Eren moaning at the feeling. 

And Levi kept at it for quite some time, pumping Eren and fucking him good but when the human could feel an orgasm closing in Levi would slow down or drop his hand from Eren’s throbbing member. 

“Just let me cum,” Eren whined after the third time, lying on his side with his left leg over Levi’s shoulder. The demon tilted his head at him, raising an eyebrow at the pleading look. 

“Please,” Eren tried instead, voice shaky with the hard thrusts. The bed was very much creaking loudly by now, the sounds unimportant to the gasping teen. He just wanted relief; to cum. 

“Fine,” Levi sighed, clearly unimpressed. Who did he think Eren was? A porn star professional at ‘edging’? Damn straight he wasn’t. 

Dropping his leg down Eren took the few seconds to catch his breath, not even getting 5 before Levi pushed inside again, Eren lying flat against the bed. 

A hot mouth was on his neck, licking and biting while Eren tilted his head to the side in order to not suffocate into the pillow. He needed all the air he could get, already tired. He wasn’t exactly out of shape but neither a marathon runner and from riding the demon earlier he clearly overcompensated. 

Hearing a rasping sound against wood Eren distractedly looked up to see Levi’s right horn pushing against the wood of his bedframe, Eren falling back into the pillow as the good feeling closed in on him. Rising his hips slightly Levi got the memo and sneaked down his hand to start pumping Eren’s cock, his biting growing harsher against Eren’s nape. 

“Ohh, fuck,” the teen finally whimpered when he fell over the edge, Levi milking his member dry from base to tip. He was obviously enjoying the whimpering and desperate sounds the human made beneath him, his hips slowing down as Eren came back to earth. 

Absently feeling Levi exit him Eren tiredly opened his eyes, sensing Levi moving to sit on his thighs, wet sounds being heard behind him. Glancing over his shoulder Eren watched him pump his own cock, eyes falling on Eren’s. 

The brown-haired teen was too tired to help, he had a couple ideas of how he could but he was completely empty of energy. All he could do was lazily wiggle his butt. 

A minute later Levi reached his climax as well, pumping his hot seed onto Eren’s back with a low growl leaving his throat. Eren couldn’t help but to watch in awe as the demon shut his eyes, face turning to the ceiling as utter pleasure fell over his features. Only a moment later he looked down and met the human’s eyes. 

“I wouldn’t mind if you came inside me,” Eren said lazily, finally getting to roll over onto his back after Levi used a random towel to clean him off. 

“Well we wouldn’t want you pregnant, would we?” Levi simply replied, throwing the cloth onto the floor before lying down beside the human. Eren stared at him, frowning. 

“I’m a boy?”

“And surprise, surprise; I’m a demon. Half alp means I have a 50% chance of impregnating you. Rules say it’s done by choice, on my part that is, but I don’t want to test that nonetheless. Not sure how an abortion would happen without you-”

“And you say that now?!” Eren yelled, gaping at the other.

***-***-***

With a sigh Eren woke up, his eyelids fluttering open as he felt the soft sheets around him. The early morning sun was peeking through his blinds, the city already awake outside. While rubbing his left eye he turned to glance at the other body in his bed. 

Levi was positioned much further down his bed, pillow under his head, for his horns to fit. He usually did this when sleeping in Eren’s bed, but this was the first time he was naked beside him. Other times Levi just somehow made his horns go away. It was sort of strange to see him without them, though. 

Licking his lips Eren turned to his bedside table, pressing his phone’s home button, reading the clock. There were two notifications, one from Facebook and another one from a game Eren didn’t even remember downloading. 

Yawning he lied back down, stretching his arms into the air. The white sheets smelled clean when Eren turned in them again. After both agreeing to shower yesterday Levi had even forced the human to change the sheets as well. Eren had been grumbling for him to do it with his damn magic but Levi just crossed his arms, demanding Eren did it faster. 

It was definitely worth it now. Not smelling dried semen and sweat in the morning after a good fuck was a nice change. 

Looking down at the peaceful demon again Eren carefully scooted down with his pillow to lie at the same height as him. The teen was grateful for the abnormally long bed, his feet not even peeking over the edge. 

Lying this close to him Eren got a good, detailed look of his features. Levi had a constant wrinkle in between his brows, his lips always closed as well as his body non-moving. Or well, so Eren thought until Levi suddenly snapped his eyes open, calling out a loud sound, the human nearly falling off the bed in surprise. 

“Now that’s a good breakfast,” Levi said, smirking as he watched Eren sigh and rub his chest, calming down as he watched the other. The human wished he could be mad at him, that he wasn’t a demon feeding on fear. 

Eren wasn’t sure, either, how his butthole would survive all the sex Levi would coax him into. Had he really just dug his own grave?

“Goodmorning to you too, Satan,” Eren greeted, lying down again. 

“It’s Levi, but thank you,” he replied to which the human rolled his eyes. 

“I’m sure I’ve lost all my last chances at going to heaven after this-”

“You never had any to begin with,” Levi deadpanned, stating the cold, hard truth. Eren watched the sunlight behind Levi fall onto the two horns, his coal black hair looking rather messy for once. With a tired hand he reached up to run his thumb against the rough surface of the hard material. 

“So I was always fucked?” Eren asked, almost a whisper, “I’ll be floating in a fiery hell for an eternity after I’ve died here on earth?” 

“From the second your father made the deal, yes,” Levi confirmed with a simple shrug. Eren slowly nodded, looking up at his fingers fiddling with horns. 

Death was supposed to be a sweet relief, not a brutal pain to fear. 

“Don’t worry, I’ll be there with you, making sure you get it at least fairly comfortable. I’ve got the highest rank in the seventh circle, which honestly is such a pain in the ass, but it means I’ve got the power to look after you for myself.”

Eren stared at him in disbelief. 

“Are you talking about the nine circles of hell? You’re bluffing.”

“Oh am I? I can show you-”

“You know what? That’s fine, I won’t question it.”

“Eren?” 

The human turned back to him, eyes widening when Levi’s lips fell onto his in something that could only be classified by a gentle kiss. Slowly closing his eyes Eren enjoyed the feeling, replying with enthusiasm. 

After Levi pulled back Eren opened his eyes to a low chuckle filling the room. 

“Something funny?” the human asked, peeking at the other. Levi smirked at him, Eren gulping at the same time as his heart sped up. Levi was a demon indeed. His eyes narrowing down at the other, filled with something Eren didn’t know whether to be scared by or aroused from. The demon again laughing at his reaction. 

And Eren?

Eren was along with weirdly pleased and sort of giddy also incredibly, royally, helplessly fucked.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you for reading! (´∀｀)♡  
> If you enjoyed it or have any complaints, please let me know!  
> Comments are the only payment I get for spending my entire weekend re-writing this, hohoho


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